Valve Updates Steam Hardware Survey For May

[IanS]

Just to clear things up a little, this is a survey, there's nothing automatic about it; they literally ask a small group of Steam users each month to submit to the survey.

Unfortunately we're in the dark about the exact methodology being used, depending on how users are selected for the survey the results may be skewed in either direction, and there's also a question about how they round the results.

Just think: if the survey was given to 1% of the world during one hour once every month, depending on what hour they pick they may end up with very different results as different countries would be asleep and some countries use Linux more than other countries.

I'm not saying that this has happened, but that it would be very hard to write a manual survey that avoids these biases. If the survey was automatic and real time, I'm sure everyone would be up in arms about their privacy being violated.

I tend to doubt this is the case as every time I install Steam, even on a new wine prefix with a fresh windows Steam copy, I get asked if I want to participate in the survey the first time I log in afterwards and then I never get asked again for that install. From what I can tell it seems an opt-in thing that does in fact include you automatically each month you use it after agreeing to participate. Beyond that though I have no clue if they count all those installs separately each month I log in with them or if they just use the one that gets the most use; I would guess the latter though.

[psychoticmeow]

I've been asked twice this year, it's pretty clear when you do it that it's manual, it asks you to confirm your information.

[IanS]

I've been asked twice this year, it's pretty clear when you do it that it's manual, it asks you to confirm your information.

I've been asked like 5 or 6 times in the past 6 months or so, but it has always been right after installing when I launched that fresh install for the first time. It asked if I wanted to participate and then when I said yes it asked me to confirm my hardware as well. It doesn't make any sense to only collect data on just a few systems at random, it isn't like they check this crap by hand and don't have the time to handle more than a small selection.

[honeybadger]

I run Steam on Debian (modified package from Github), runs great, but this month survey dialog haven't showed up. In April, when I had Ubuntu Installation it showed at the end of the month.

More than enough games for me, I play mostly Indie games. It's still very early days, there's no reason for pessimism.

[psychoticmeow]

I've been asked like 5 or 6 times in the past 6 months or so, but it has always been right after installing when I launched that fresh install for the first time. It asked if I wanted to participate and then when I said yes it asked me to confirm my hardware as well. It doesn't make any sense to only collect data on just a few systems at random, it isn't like they check this crap by hand and don't have the time to handle more than a small selection.

I'm still using the same Steam installation, and it didn't ask me when I installed it at the end of last year. The survey itself it published monthly, the page says:

Steam conducts a monthly survey to collect data about what kinds of computer hardware and software our customers are using. Participation in the survey is optional, and anonymous.

This doesn't really commit either way.

Actually, the following bit appears to confirm that it is a monthly prompting of users at random:

There was a bug introduced into Steam's survey code several months ago that caused a bias toward older systems. Specifically, only systems that had run the survey prior to the introduction of the bug would be asked to run the survey again. This caused brand new systems to never run the survey. In March 2012, we caught the bug, causing the survey to be run on a large number of new computers, thus giving us a more accurate survey and causing some of the numbers to vary more than they normally would month-to-month.

[V10lator]

You are asked each time they select you for the survey. But there seem to be some problems: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/ste...ux/issues/2286

[Mike Frett]

heh

I suspect it's going to be a lot like the desktop situation: there is no reason to leave Windows for Linux.

Plenty of reasons to leave Windows, unless you don't follow the news. How exactly do you think the Chinese are getting in to government databases? Through Windows backdoors. Did you forget the one about Medical devices being totally infected by malware? embedded versions of Windows there. _NSAKEY anyone?. If someone is so ignorant as to think Microsoft has your privacy and security in mind and would never put in place code to allow Governments and Police to access their product though backdoors, then maybe you deserve Windows. Don't forget the dozens of articles about all the malware and backdoors in Skype.

When you talk about Games, I know you're talking about AAA titles. But the cost to produce those titles are rising and I'm sorry to tell you, it's not going to last forever; ask THQ. As far as other games, just in case you haven't been looking, Indie games are sprouting up everywhere, poised to replace the big name companies like EA; and most all of them support Linux. What you're speaking of is mostly about Desktop, which is in decline, mobile rules the world now and Android (Linux) is on top; Microsoft can't even compete there.

The times are changing, and a lot of people are in denial. I suggest a strong cup of Coffee to wake yourself up to reality. I left Windows after 15 years of use and I'll never go back to that form of Slavery.

[curaga]

It would be useful if Valve split "Other" into 3 different entries: "Other Windows", "Other Mac" and "Other Linux". It would clear up a lot of ambiguity.

What about the rest? "Other other"?

[GreatEmerald]

What about the rest? "Other other"?

Do they support anything else? If you get it working on BSD, then it will still be running the Linux version, so could in theory make it show up as Linux Other.

[curaga]

They didn't support linux for years, yet people ran it on Wine.

No doubt there will be some people crazy enough to run it on BSD, Haiku, some old Win/Mac, etc.