Steam On Linux Drops Below 2% For August 2024 Survey

[pWe00Iri3e7Z9lHOX2Qx]

Sometimes they even work better than on Windows. Going over how old DirectX is not fully supported in last versions of Windows, the Linux community's gamepad mapping automatically installed with a Windows game allow you to play it on Steam Deck. Unlike on the Windows handheld consoles where this mapping is missing and the game e.g. needs physical keyboard for some actions.

Also, containerizing stuff in Linux is just way easier. I'd much rather install games via the flatpak version of Steam or in a distrobox container, especially when they have Easy Anti Cheat and other goop.

[pWe00Iri3e7Z9lHOX2Qx]

I tried it , but not so easy and doesnt work for too many games.
Games need to be native or they wont work good on linux.

I want to focus on the part I bolded. You literally click one setting in Steam to enable Proton. Sure it doesn't work for every game, but it works for a hell of a lot of them. Also, since the release of the Steam Deck, there's a steady stream of games making changes to work better and get Steam Deck verified (just follow GOL).

[skeevy420]

This information is years out of date. Almost all modern games not protected by invasive anticheat work fine on Linux. The performance is usually on pair with Windows, some run a bit worse some run a bit better. A very tiny fraction runs significantly worse, but also a very tiny fraction runs significantly better.
YES, THAT'S HOW MUCH OF AN OVERHEAD THE WINDOWS DESKTOP ENVIRONMENT/SPYWARE SUITE IS OVER JUST THE WINDOWS KERNEL & various syscalls wine/proton needs to translate for.

>I tried it , but not so easy and doesnt work for too many games.

If you are not addicted to one of the anticheat titles, then picking great games to play is simplicity itself on Linux. Native ports are often worse than using proton as well. Perhaps your experiences are years out of date, or it's a user error, such as using syswine to run games etc.. It is true that a certain degree of fiddling is required outside of the Steam client to run stuff well.

I both agree and disagree with that. A lot of games work great on Linux, especially through Steam with Proton. It's when they don't just work that you're left scratching your head and have to be somewhat keen with debugging and troubleshooting. Over the past week I've been installing some GOG games with Lutris or manually and then adding them to Lutris to configure Wine, etc with a handy UI. Some of them just work, some don't. When they don't work it's usually fucking weird.

Take installing and running Myst (2021) the day before yesterday, when I used Proton GE or any Lutris provided Wine or Proton runner then it wouldn't work fullscreen. Only maximized or windowed. Switching to the CachyOS provided Wine allows it to work fullscreen. That's just fucking weird and probably related to some random patch. Most Linux noobs won't think to try multiple Wine runners.

Then there's knowing quirks in the programs you're using. That's especially true when you go outside Steam. Take Lutris, if you use it to launch Gamescope for HDR then you have to know to disable Mangohud else you'll get the HDR swapchain error. Basically, Lutris isn't smart enough to know to switch from "mangohud" to "gamescope --mangoapp" when the HDR switch is flipped. You as the user have to know to untick mangohud and add in the custom flag to gamescope. That'll probably be fixed soon enough, but it's damn annoying when you forget the Mango-HDR quirks. That's not so bad except that there's a bug where my GPU reports 0% in Mangoapp but not Mangohud.

Also, Optiscaler over on Nexusmods is the shiznit. It replaces DLSS with either XeSS, FSR2, or FSR3. I'm using it for FSR3 on Myst and Control to get 1440p60 ultrawide with high/epic settings and ray tracing set to medium (or just on in the case of Myst). I'm using a custom rendering scale of 1.44 on Control via that mod.

I wonder if EA is why there's a dip in Linux usage. EA has been on a roll adding their anticheat to games all summer long. I know that because I saw Battlefield 2042 on sale, thought I'd buy it, and then I read the reviews from other Linux users. Adding anticheat to a bunch of mass multiplayer games during peak multiplayer gaming season is going to lead to less Linux users. At the end of the day most people would rather play with their friends than with a penguin.

[loganj]

LMAO what are you on? Native games barely function. They generally have low performance and no Wayland support, among with other issues.

so steam has wayland support?????
since when?

[TheMightyBuzzard]

Proton came a long way my friend. Something not running on Linux/SteamDeck is the exception these days.

Games don't need to be developed natively for Linux anymore. As long as devs don't go overzealous with DRM, it just works. Proton is _that_ good.

Oh it's still nowhere near "_that_ good" but it's pretty passable for about 8-9 out of 10 games. Leaving out any that use recent .Net of course.

[AmericanLocomotive]

Every single time the Steam Hardware Survey indicates a trend against someone's favorite hardware/software, the claims of it being inaccurate or purposely biased start coming out.

Valve is a software company and publisher. It is in their own best interest, and their partners' best interest to have accurate, reliable data. If 20% of Steam users are running Linux, and Valve is only saying 2% do - how dose that help Valve, their partner developers/publishers, and Steam users?

It doesn't. It would essentially just be leaving a huge part of the market sitting there with no software available for them.

[vextium]

Let me just add that this fluctuation continues for the third month:
June: -0.24%
July: 0.00%
August: -0.16%
---------------------------------------------------------------

Getting back to my main topic - an addition to the survey:

Linux has: 1.92%
AMD AMD Custom GPU 0405: 27.79%
AMD Radeon Graphics (RADV VANGOGH): 12.79%


So GNU/Linux without Deck for the month of August has: 1.92 * (1 - (0.278 + 0.128)) = 1.14%

I wonder how this statistic would look like if W11 had a better reputation .

My guy, I legitimately don't understand your hate boner for Linux and why you're here. Surely you have better use of your time? Like post this on Twitter with Twitter Blue and at least you'll get paid for ragebait.

[avis]

Meanwhile Windows 11 is already at 50%.

Compatibility and support matter.

[JMB9]

It is interesting that Steam is presented as if it matters for people using Linux.

First there scripts/programs for Windows are faster than their Linux things ...
I have never experienced that except for Steam.
So all people who not only test but use Linux would not consider Steam.

Games sold on Steam for Linux are predominantly made with emulators/layering.
Someone using Linux would know that this is inferior crap and would want a port.
On other platforms one may get rather no 32 bit SW as Linux people know that this is just old trash.
Not on Steam - as people there want to play - typically below 4k resolution (as in ancient times) and
probably with insane freuquencies like 120 Hz (which does not matter at all as it won't have a visible
difference if the frequency is above 90 Hz).

DRM is something most people who know Open Source or Free Software would not consider
being worth money ...
With Steam being founded by former Microsoft people ... DRM and other monopoly tactics is common.

Maybe most gamers would not care about inferior technique - or short lifetime of necessary
services (at least when buying a game) - and would even be happy to get latest mods not available
on other game selling platforms than Steam (it is not their property - but they make sure that they
are only provided for their own customers and wordings can be found on Steam that modders are
thinking that they have no right to share it on free accesible alternatives ... really a nice reading).

For me, Steam is not existing as my quality minimum would never be reached by their offerings ...
anyone can consider what one think is appropriate.

But Linux and Steam does not fit ... especially when libraries should be used (Steam is not the
only platform to urge people using special libraries - to be fair here) which makes it harder
to create games for other platforms. Such libs are well known for controllers or for editors ...

And when reading about compatibility: compatibility was introduced by IBM for PC which made it
a success - this is unheard-of in Microsoft environment.
They set their own standards (which change rapidly) and one is forced from one version to the next.
This is not only concerning Word and other office apps (would not call those programs at all).

So people who like Steam should buy there - but those people will definetely use Windows.
If one is using Linux, one is used to see no crashes - and this would not fit to most of those
gaming experience.

Talking with devs quality concerning bug report and also of feature requests are much higher
when gamers use Linux. Using discord and looking at devs known for well written games
one can clearly see a difference just by reading the feedback.
On the other hand Linux market share is lower - so just developing Windows games is
enough for most developers (testing for Linux is normally not even done - and Linux
ports withdrawn when problem reports are sent in).
Both should not be too surprising - Linux is not preinstalled (if you look at what you would get,
you would delete it anyway and install yourself) - Linux people know what they are doing and
would normally work much more then using time for gaming.
If one has a glance on Steam pages ... there is a lot of contradicting information or important
things just left out. I have not seen a technically convincing product page ... and most things
are coming from gamers or directly from devs.

Everyone is free in making desisions - but for me a low percentage of Steam users is abolutely ok.
If Linux would dominate on Steam ... I would feel very uncomfortable.

It is good as it is right now.

Steam is not at all appealing for Linux users ... at least from my point of view
(using kernel Linux before 1.0 and looking on gaming scene to get quality indicators and
defining good design for some gaming prototypes for education purposes ...).

[kpedersen]

DRM is something most people who know Open Source or Free Software would not consider
being worth money ...
With Steam being founded by former Microsoft people ... DRM and other monopoly tactics is common.

This is the key one. The guys who are serious about Linux and have been since its beginning have ditched this crap decades ago.

You have a small minority of young Windows -> Linux gamers but they tend to get bored or go back to Windows as soon as a game they want to play comes out on limited platforms. But other than that, Linux really is not a good market for the Steam DRM Platform.

Valve is playing it smart keeping its head just above water with regards to Linux, in case Microsoft does anything too mad to Windows. But this really is no competition (and I imagine it is within Valve's best interest to artificially keep it this way!). Ultimately the usability of Windows as an open(enough)-platform will probably hold out longer than Valve and the Steam DRM Platform.

That said, I actually predict that the Steam DRM platform will shut down for macOS first (and in the not too distant future). The uptake feels lethargic at best and the fast deprecation of previous macOS revisions is actually starting to become an issue for them. Many games only run on the older macOS revisions and yet the Steam DRM Platform only runs on the newer revisions.