Steam Survey For July 2016: Linux +0.02%

[Passso]

Statistics are like that. After a while someone will post with the opposite situation. It's normal you don't have the whole picture.

Nope, this has been the exact scenario since start. Windows popup every week, Linux every 3 month.
I could admit the statistical argument for a few months but it is the case since years and I never saw a counter-example.

[Passso]

I wish they would finally offer a non-Ubunutu-focused thing. There is more out there than Debian derivatives. Furthermore, finally offer something that is compatible with a MODERN distribution, with a recent mesa (etc.) and that is 64bit. Besides, the survery... blah, and so on, hardly ever pops up on Linux etc. etc., whatever mechanism they use to count installations...
I'm rather on gog*, that stuff usually just works and I am not forced to have a stupid client, a "Steam runtime environment" that stops working once I update something on my system. (* Or the little DRM free stuff Humble has to offer.)

True and good for non-DRM and indie games.
But with Steam I can play on a new computer very easily : just install the Steam client and all your games are available to install with no cd-key, no patch required etc.

[starshipeleven]

http://wiki.debian.org/Multiarch/HOWTO does not work?

Don't assume I'm an idiot plx.
https://wiki.debian.org/Steam#A64-bi...ms_.28amd64.29
"Installing the 32-bit OpenGL libraries may uninstall the 64-bit drivers you may have previously installed. Installing the AMD graphics or NVIDIA graphics drivers for your system is recommended. The appropriate OpenGL library will be installed along with those drivers. If you installed these drivers from jessie-backports be sure to also install the 32 bit library from jessie-backports."

And I discovered this the hard way, as after I cleaned up Steam and its stuff I found out that I wasn't getting OpenGL anymore. Fun and games for a hour or so that I tried to understand wtf happened and what was missing so i could reinstall it.

In Debian not all packages are multiarch-safe, sadly.

Yet another reason I switched to OpenSUSE.

It is just a few additional gigabytes (GiB):

Not said it was an issue. I was comparing the "very minor inconvenience of wasting a few GBs" of most non-Debian distros with "installing multiarch might fuck up your system because not all packages are multiarch-safe".

[starshipeleven]

Nope, this has been the exact scenario since start. Windows popup every week, Linux every 3 month.
I could admit the statistical argument for a few months but it is the case since years and I never saw a counter-example.

There were guys in other threads talking about how they got surveys only on linux.

I personally had 2 on Linux and jackshit on Windows.

Really, unless you have talked to a few hundred thousands of people chosen perfectly randomly from Steam's user pool, you cannot say "it is broken" for sure.

[starshipeleven]

I didn't.

Your internal model of me in your brain might be assuming it.

mind=blown

[Passso]

There were guys in other threads talking about how they got surveys only on linux.

I personally had 2 on Linux and jackshit on Windows.

Really, unless you have talked to a few hundred thousands of people chosen perfectly randomly from Steam's user pool, you cannot say "it is broken" for sure.

Ofc you ask me an evidence I sure cannot bring so let me ask you to prove that the survey popup is fair and you will neither be able to...

So I will just state that my experience, people around me, Phoronix forum, Google and Reddit tend to show that Steam survey is rare on Linux compared to Windows.

[rgfernandes]

I think that Steam makes some wonders in Linux. If you think that the Steam user base has grown a lot lately, you'll realize that to Linux users still be only 1-2% of total Steam users it has to grow a lot too.

This is another site that will show the grown of Linux user base:

https://www.netmarketshare.com/opera...=9&qpcustomb=0

If you look at Linux, yes, it is still 2% of the market, but it was always only 1%.
Look how the Windows (that always was 95-97%) are declining. Look at Mac. It has spiked but it is now declining too.

Actually, the Linux user base has doubled since Steam came to Linux.

Michael could write a article about it.

[starshipeleven]

Ofc you ask me an evidence I sure cannot bring so let me ask you to prove that the survey popup is fair and you will neither be able to...

Because my point is that statistics are a bitch to get right, and VERY easy to skew in whatever direction, not saying that Steam is making more surveys on linux.

So I will just state that my experience, people around me, Phoronix forum, Google and Reddit tend to show that Steam survey is rare on Linux compared to Windows.

As I said, that's totally irrelevant as it is NOT a statistically significant number nor a group of people selected in a way that ensures you aren't gating answers without knowing it.

Also, the whole thing is probably not accurate anyway, as it is voluntary and not simple flat telemetry, and because it uses a random algorithm to select who show the survey to.

[SaucyJack]

Considering that there is exactly 0 need for a 64-bit version of their client since Windows and linux and OSX run 32bit programs in 64bit arch OS too anyway...

Sure on linux would be nice having it 64-bits so you don't have to pull down a bunch of 32bit libraries, but really, most games are 32bits and will remain so forever, so it's not like you can do without them anyway.

Every game I've bought in the last year was 64 bit, or had a 32 bit version along side a 64 bit version. So I have no idea where you're getting this stuff.

[SaucyJack]

There is no advantage in a 64-bit Steam client compared to 32-bit:

• 32-bit address space is large enough for this app
• performance would be the same
• app stability would be the same
• the user experience would be the same

32-bit version of an app consumes smaller amount of memory than 64-bit version of the app.

Pointless 32 bit libraries (That's a huge user experience point for linux users), performance would increase slightly (64-bit has always been that way, don't know why you think it wouldn't change), and it would consume slightly more ram, oh noes, but I save more ram on 32 bit libraries.