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Steam Linux Usage Still On The Decline

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  • curaga
    replied
    Originally posted by gamerk2 View Post
    And I've yet to see a piece of malware actually cause a BSOD in the NT 6.1 (Vista/7/8) Kernel.
    You don't even need malware for that, I've had 3ds Max cause blue screens on w7 :P

    Leave a comment:


  • movieman
    replied
    Originally posted by gamerk2 View Post
    Only a couple hundred times. Not that big a deal.
    Because you've done it a couple of hundred times. Hand a Windows DVD and a PC with a blank hard drive to Joe Sixpack and see if they think it 'just works'.

    Plenty of times. Usually, its a BIOS setting or bad RAM stick, both easy to diagnose and fix.
    Usually it's 'my PC was working properly, but now every time I go to the Interweb I get a popup for a porn site and my screen saver has changed to advertising an online casino and what are these six new taskbars and why doesn't my anti-virus run any more?'

    The good thing about spending most of my time on Linux is that I no longer have to try to help people fix that, I can just say 'I don't know anything about Windows any more'.

    Not really. Sure, you can make Windows run like crap by installing every piece of malware under the sun, but hey, thats true for any OS. And I've yet to see a piece of malware actually cause a BSOD in the NT 6.1 (Vista/7/8) Kernel.
    BSODs are largely irrelevant, since you just reboot. The real problem is when the PC starts misbehaving because they clicked on some kind of malware install or because Windows screwed up and now Windows .Net Framework 3.7 doesn't work any more, or nothing runs because a failed Windows update just left you in SxS Hell (the latter two probably requiring a complete reinstall), or some program that should run just exits silently, maybe because something it relies on is being blocked by the Windows Firewall, or maybe because... who knows?

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  • gamerk2
    replied
    Originally posted by movieman View Post
    Have you ever tried to install Windows on a new PC?
    Only a couple hundred times. Not that big a deal.

    Have you ever dealt with non-techie Windows users whose system is broken?
    Plenty of times. Usually, its a BIOS setting or bad RAM stick, both easy to diagnose and fix.

    The only reason you can say that is because OEMs ship systems with Windows pre-installed. If they shipped systems with Linux pre-installed, they'd be no different. And it only takes a few clicks for a non-techie Windows user to trash their system installing random crap from the Internet... yes, you must have Happy Fluffy Kitty Screen Saver right now!
    Not really. Sure, you can make Windows run like crap by installing every piece of malware under the sun, but hey, thats true for any OS. And I've yet to see a piece of malware actually cause a BSOD in the NT 6.1 (Vista/7/8) Kernel.

    Leave a comment:


  • Yfrwlf
    replied
    Originally posted by cjcox View Post
    Valve doesn't understand (many things).

    I'm a long time user of Steam... STRICTLY on Linux. And I'm not alone. Valve doesn't get it though. Steam has worked well with Wine for many many years (YEARS!).

    I purchased a Steam Valve bundle so I could play HL2, and HL.

    With that said I was pleasantly surprised to see all my settings inside of native Steam for Linux... including my purchased games (again... please take note Valve... I do NOT use Windows).

    And with that said, HL2 and friends look great under native Steam. If I have any gripes is that Valve now believes that Linux == Ubuntu. And with that said, I use native Steam under openSUSE.... but some of the Linux games don't work unless you use Ubuntu (but most of them work).

    And finally, if this wasn't obvious... to Valve.. usage == "you are paying us on a regular basis for games"... and frankly, there's just way too many "free" offerings out there.

    But if you have some cash, feel free to send Valve some love for at least trying.... but I don't necessarily expect it to continue long term... because they just don't get it...
    They need to release a static Steam installer that downloads any libraries you are missing, yes. Hopefully they will do this soon. If they really wanted to they could put a warning message about possible game dysfunctionality if it detects you are running a rare/unsupported/whatever window manager / compositor, if that is one of the reasons they "recommend Ubuntu" and are supporting Ubuntu first, since their compositor is what they are using to test games in.

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  • cjcox
    replied
    Originally posted by phoronix View Post
    Phoronix: Steam Linux Usage Still On The Decline

    With Valve's very well known "Steam Hardware Survey", after showing some promising Linux statistics at first, last month indicated that the Linux adoption of the game distribution software was stagnate or on the decline. The April figures for the Steam hardware survey are now public and they indicate further losses for Linux gamers...

    http://www.phoronix.com/vr.php?view=MTM2Mjg
    Valve doesn't understand (many things).

    I'm a long time user of Steam... STRICTLY on Linux. And I'm not alone. Valve doesn't get it though. Steam has worked well with Wine for many many years (YEARS!).

    I purchased a Steam Valve bundle so I could play HL2, and HL.

    With that said I was pleasantly surprised to see all my settings inside of native Steam for Linux... including my purchased games (again... please take note Valve... I do NOT use Windows).

    And with that said, HL2 and friends look great under native Steam. If I have any gripes is that Valve now believes that Linux == Ubuntu. And with that said, I use native Steam under openSUSE.... but some of the Linux games don't work unless you use Ubuntu (but most of them work).

    And finally, if this wasn't obvious... to Valve.. usage == "you are paying us on a regular basis for games"... and frankly, there's just way too many "free" offerings out there.

    But if you have some cash, feel free to send Valve some love for at least trying.... but I don't necessarily expect it to continue long term... because they just don't get it...

    Leave a comment:


  • Cyber Killer
    replied
    Originally posted by gamerk2 View Post
    But the issue here is that Value can not implement such a system unless EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THE PUBLISHERS ON STEAM AGREE. Which will not happen. [Seriously, put any 100 people in a room and try and find unanimous consensus on anything]
    Your assumption is wrong - there is no need for every publisher to agree. Actually it needs at least only one publisher to agree. There is no problem with having 2 categories/tags for games (internally) marking them as 'resellable' and 'not resellable'. Just a boolean flag in the DB, easy.

    Have you ever tried to install Windows on a new PC?

    Have you ever dealt with non-techie Windows users whose system is broken?

    The only reason you can say that is because OEMs ship systems with Windows pre-installed. If they shipped systems with Linux pre-installed, they'd be no different. And it only takes a few clicks for a non-techie Windows user to trash their system installing random crap from the Internet... yes, you must have Happy Fluffy Kitty Screen Saver right now!

    As for Linux gaming, the problem is that most of us who have Linux systems also have Windows systems for games, so we're unlikely to switch. I installed Linux Steam on my netbook, but it can't run many of the Linux games I own because it's so low-powered.
    True! If any sane IT person would install GNU on a n00bs computer and give it to them, they would not have any problems with using it. Even my grandma could use GNU with KDE and that was over 5 years ago!
    Last edited by Cyber Killer; 16 May 2013, 11:25 PM.

    Leave a comment:


  • movieman
    replied
    Originally posted by gamerk2 View Post
    Thats the reason Windows is so successful: Out of the box, it works.
    Have you ever tried to install Windows on a new PC?

    Have you ever dealt with non-techie Windows users whose system is broken?

    The only reason you can say that is because OEMs ship systems with Windows pre-installed. If they shipped systems with Linux pre-installed, they'd be no different. And it only takes a few clicks for a non-techie Windows user to trash their system installing random crap from the Internet... yes, you must have Happy Fluffy Kitty Screen Saver right now!

    As for Linux gaming, the problem is that most of us who have Linux systems also have Windows systems for games, so we're unlikely to switch. I installed Linux Steam on my netbook, but it can't run many of the Linux games I own because it's so low-powered.

    Leave a comment:


  • gamerk2
    replied
    Originally posted by ownagefool View Post
    Sigh. It has nothing to do with this. If you were to tell gamers that they could get another OS for free, that'd run their games fine, and offer a decent experience, they'd probably be happy to switch. The problem isn't that everyones sold on windows, the problem is the *nix experience isn't great.

    Our DEs aren't that great, and the defaults setups they seem to come in don't make sense. Sure, I can tweak mine, but your average gamer has no interest in this.
    Driver issues still semi suck. Maybe everything will work, maybe it won't, but you don't have an easy to install disk when it doesn't.
    The games and apps aren't there yet.
    Sound can be fiddily, though it's been getting better.

    All these issues are being worked on and I'm confident that everything besides the de's will be good. Other than that, people really don't care what OS they use.
    More or less this. People don't want to be bothered with having to spend significant amounts of time trying to get things to work right. Thats the reason Windows is so successful: Out of the box, it works.

    Leave a comment:


  • gamerk2
    replied
    Originally posted by Cyber Killer View Post
    On a side note - yes I can predict that the big publishers wouldn't be so fond of such a system, but I bet that most of the indies would very gladly welcome it, as they are more concerned with people being happy with their game. And again - never say never. In my life I've met a lot of people that were so sure of what they were saying that they said that something will "never" happen, and yet it happened. It took some time (sometimes quite a lot of time), but for most things the question is not "if", only "when". Now let's end this offtopic.
    But the issue here is that Value can not implement such a system unless EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THE PUBLISHERS ON STEAM AGREE. Which will not happen. [Seriously, put any 100 people in a room and try and find unanimous consensus on anything]

    Leave a comment:


  • ownagefool
    replied
    Originally posted by marco26 View Post
    This! people just cannot expect that gaming on linux will ever be an alternative to windows gaming, even if there were exactly the same games on both platforms windows would be king for a long margin, because most people just don't use linux, because they don't now it or even care about it, windows is what comes with their PC's and it does the job for them.
    Sigh. It has nothing to do with this. If you were to tell gamers that they could get another OS for free, that'd run their games fine, and offer a decent experience, they'd probably be happy to switch. The problem isn't that everyones sold on windows, the problem is the *nix experience isn't great.

    Our DEs aren't that great, and the defaults setups they seem to come in don't make sense. Sure, I can tweak mine, but your average gamer has no interest in this.
    Driver issues still semi suck. Maybe everything will work, maybe it won't, but you don't have an easy to install disk when it doesn't.
    The games and apps aren't there yet.
    Sound can be fiddily, though it's been getting better.

    All these issues are being worked on and I'm confident that everything besides the de's will be good. Other than that, people really don't care what OS they use.

    Leave a comment:

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