Latest Valve Data Puts Steam Linux Marketshare At 0.90%

[stiiixy]

Every single one of those listed items scares away users. People don't want to bother with that type of stuff.

Look people, on Windows, I can run games from the late 90's on Win 10 x64, with no modification, no issues. On Linux, I'm lucky if I can get a program compiled a year ago to run without having to make some system modification. Sorry, for 99.9% of the population, Windows is easier. This is why mobile devices and consoles have taken off in recent years: Ease of use. And Linux is not nor will ever be easy to use for the general user.

You're deadset igger'nan. Anecdotal evidence (my anecdotal suggests you're a liar about Windows gaming) has no bearing on the spurious number's (99.9%? You're forgetting Mac OS) you're bandying about. As for ease of use, Linux is the easiest. See, two can plah this game! Mac OS is a complete drag for me, and Windows get's more pathetic and confusing and time consuming to operate from a GUI point of view each release. It was taking four clicks to reset and reconnect to WiFi comared to XP's (and linux's and Mac's) 1 for crying out loud.

Consoles have not taken off in recent years. They've always been taking off. It's just far more acceptable now to more than just boys as more market's types open up with each generational release.(Nintendo really bought the girls on to the scene.

[Mez']

Diversity of Linux distro components limited user base and get bad user experience fundamentally. There is no solution for a commercial product (say, Steam and its games) to support a home Linux distro.

Say, a question like:
"When I start XXX game from Steam, it shows a dialog says YYY library is missing ZZZ, I am using DDD distro version VVV".
You may simply not find anyone in the universe having this configuration having the same issue. As a result your solution is not "find and solve the root cause" but "upgrade your YYY library or even DDD distro version". This is totally bad solution.

True.

I am a happy Linux user in general, there's no doubt about that. I love my workflow.

Nevertheless, Linux is just not ready yet for common gaming. It improved a lot games-wise, but the drivers are way behind and always leading to some kind of lack or trade-off or ...

With the drop of support of fglrx, it got even worse. Open drivers are just not yet ready for prime time.

The use of prime not being innocent here, since DRI_PRIME=1 must be used on hybrid graphics system to use the discrete card, and since laptops sales are way above desktop sales nowadays, it is important!
But it just doesn't work flawlessly. There are so many different cases reported on the Internet about issues with hybrid systems (all being different with different distros installed), it is just impossible to find the one solution to your problem.

In the meantime, it's tinkering, command line, more tinkering, boot options, unstable repositories, latest rc kernel because you never know, more command line, some last tinkering just in case this time...

So much lost time I could use to enjoy some outdoors activities.

[Mez']

Duplicate.

[gamerk2]

You're deadset igger'nan. Anecdotal evidence (my anecdotal suggests you're a liar about Windows gaming) has no bearing on the spurious number's (99.9%? You're forgetting Mac OS) you're bandying about. As for ease of use, Linux is the easiest. See, two can plah this game! Mac OS is a complete drag for me, and Windows get's more pathetic and confusing and time consuming to operate from a GUI point of view each release. It was taking four clicks to reset and reconnect to WiFi comared to XP's (and linux's and Mac's) 1 for crying out loud.

Consoles have not taken off in recent years. They've always been taking off. It's just far more acceptable now to more than just boys as more market's types open up with each generational release.(Nintendo really bought the girls on to the scene.

The first step to fixing a problem is admitting you have a problem.

Four years ago, I was here complaining about how piss poor OpenGL was. Everyone else was convinced OpenGL was the greatest graphics API since sliced bread. Now it's being phased out in favor of Vulkan, which addresses all of the issues I was complaining about.

Two years ago, I was here complaining about deficiencies in the Linux scheduler, to the point I was giving theoretical cases where performance was being lost. But everyone here was convinced the Linux scheduler was the greatest thing ever. Over the last month, the problems in the Linux scheduler have gotten a lot more focus.

Let me be clear here: From an ease of use perspective, Linux sucks. Badly. People don't want to be bothered updating their systems, modifying their applications, or messing around with dependencies.

Huh, guess in two years, Linux usability will be the new topic point here...

That's a really not true. Just ask GOG that tries as much as possible to get old games running on new platforms.

Putting aside the DOS ports [which is hardly an argument against Windows], the ONLY titles that flat out will not run are 16-bit .exe's, due to the removal of WOW16. And most of those titles had a native DOS version anyway, so it's not like they're difficult to get running again; DOSBOX is a thing. Aside from that, the only titles I've ever had significant issues running are made by Microsoft Game Studios [go figure]. Granted, some minor configuration may be necessary, but the worst I've ever had to resort to was a Glide wrapper. Pretty much my entire library from early 95 onward works on Windows 10 x64, out of the box, with zero modifications. Try getting 20 year old Linux software working.

Again, this isn't a technical point, its a USABILITY point. On Windows, 99% of the stuff you install and it works. On Linux...not so much. Fix that, and Linux will become a lot more attractive.

[drSeehas]

Text context is difficult for many.

I agree.

Write to Micahel to fix this:
"Phoronix is the leading technology website for Linux hardware reviews, open-source news, Linux benchmarks, open-source benchmarks, and computer"

Why should this be fixed?

Write to Linux journal to change their magazine name:
http://www.linuxjournal.com/...

Why should they change their magazine name?

[Guest]

Still 0.9%. That's not too bad, really. I'm proud.

People who invested their egos into Linux are made because it used to be more than that.

I would like to see usage graph over 5 years with marked timelines of AAA titles released though (witcher2, metro, bioshock, ...).
Wonder if these aren't to "blame" for usage spikes or if it's something else.

[entropy]

I wonder if Valve already considers their "going Linux" a failure or do the prepare for something big?
To me it seems like there is no real progress or at least an announcement of a potential game changer of some kind.

It's just a bad feeling I have, that things are not going good and by that I don't mean the plain user statistics.

[cj.wijtmans]

i had 1 or 2 surveys in 3-4 years... I had like 1 every few months on windows. If we would correct the stat i think its actually closer to 2-3%

[cj.wijtmans]

Why are many people assuming that Steam Linux market share isn't derived from data sent through network every time the client is started, or while it is running, or every time the user starts/finishes playing a game?

Why ask a rhetorical question if you could provide some information on how its collected?

[sarmad]

Those data are FUD and unrealistic. I never had a Steam-Survey on Steam Linux, but just if i start Steam in Windows i get the survey.

That's just because you game on Windows more than you do on Linux, so you have more chances of getting the survey on Windows. This is also why Linux market share is below 1%. If Linux users have more than 2000 native games available to them and still game on Windows why do you expect Linux share to be anything more than 1%?