Steam's Latest Monthly Survey Puts Linux Gaming Marketshare At 0.75%

[shmerl]

Well we have Witcher3, SkyrimSE, Fallout4 and some other games getting Vulkan update sometime in the near future according to AMD

Where did you see any information about Witcher 3 getting a Vulkan update? Can you link to the source please?

[GI_Jack]

Consider this:

The only people who run Linux desktops are sysadmins and programmers. Linux desktops are fucking awesome for sysadmin work, and acceptable for programmers. No one else gives a damn.

Also, look at the people who use linux, GNU, and write GNU software. None of us could design a valid GUI to save our lives. Few of us give a damn about a feature complete GUI or even the poettering made middleware that makes GNU/Linux class with windows and OSX desktops.

Not because we're stupid, its just because we have zero interest in actually doing so. There is a reason that while Linux tends to dominate every other market besides the desktop, but will never gain a foothold on the desktop. Linux users not only won't code certain features, but actively oppose them.

Relivant xkcd

https://xkcd.com/619/

This should explain why desktop marketshare is %1, and supercomputer(who need more than 1024 CPUs) marketshare is over %90.

[shmerl]

There is a reason that while Linux tends to dominate every other market besides the desktop

The reason is simple has been around for years. MS has a stranglehold on PC manufacturers, and pushes Windows on them. Good luck buying a computer with Linux pre-installed in any regular store.

[hrkristian]

The reason is simple has been around for years. MS has a stranglehold on PC manufacturers, and pushes Windows on them. Good luck buying a computer with Linux pre-installed in any regular store.

Why would manufacturers choose Linux?
This is 2017, and while Windows is losing marketshare to competition Linux stays much the same, because Linux is not what the top of the bell curve (not the intelligence bell curve) needs nor wants regardless of Windows and Microsoft.

Microsoft *had* a stranglehold, they don't anymore in the consumer market. They're still very relevant but they're not irreplaceable like they were.

Linux simply will not have a significantly higher marketshare until people en masse start having need for the more advanced possibilities of Linux, which won't really ever happen unless we change human nature.

[shmerl]

Why would manufacturers choose Linux?

They need to provide a choice, in order to prevent monopoly. But MS can blackmail them not to. People can't start using it en masse, until it will be sold en masse. Get the catch 22? Most people don't care what OS comes on the computer. They use whatever comes with it.

[AndyChow]

He was talking about the CPUs.

So was I. I was just pointing out that just because AMD might offer a great product, does not mean it will grab market share.

[indepe]

This should explain why desktop marketshare is %1, and supercomputer(who need more than 1024 CPUs) marketshare is over %90.

Where is the number 1% from? The steam platform gaming surveys? Gaming is not equal to desktop.

If you look here: https://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php , the number for "Linux" is 4.63%. That's without Android, but I am not sure if it includes some other non-desktop platforms. Around 5% would be quite good, and also would seem to indicate that the gaming share could easily be higher if there was better support on Linux, as is coming up to some degree.

[starshipeleven]

For better or worse, it's the only stats we have. To compensate for inaccuracies, add a 50% margin of error. The end result is still the same.

Bullshit data cannot be compensated in any way by adding arbitrary margins of error.

[Sonadow]

The numbers don't surprise me at all. After 12 years of using Linux as my primary desktop OS, I find myself using Linux less and less. I'd go as far as to say Windows 10 is now the primary OS on my home machine. I know a few other users who have also left Linux. Windows 10, with the Linux Runtime Environment Beta, does everything I need with no negatives that I still find myself bumping into in Linux. After 12 years of Linux desktop use and 17 years commercial Linux server use I'd like to think I know my stuff but Linux on the desktop still has huge problems, beyond games support (printing anyone?). Except for gaming, the OS in use is becoming inconsequential as use of cloud based applications etc become the norm. The web browser in use is more important than the OS. My own employer has recently moved from MS Office and MS Exchange etc to using the Google office solution, gmail, sheets, drive etc.

In many ways, Windows has caught up to Linux, and Linux has pretty much stopped innovating. Even as you read the articles here on Phoronix you see that there is essentially nothing new occurring in the Linux world, and no real advancements. The desktop environments themselves are a pile of unusable brokenness that never get fixed, and it seems like it just gets worse. There are so many UI failures in Ubuntu 16.04 that it's hilarious. It looks like a kid's toy with buttons that have one of their borders missing or not enough spacing between components, etc. It all just looks and works like a pile of third-rate crap.

Unfortunate but true. The only advantages in Linux now are the sane naming conventions (why the F does Microsoft insist on using arcane strings of characters and numbers for configuration and cache folders), generally better performance on the same hardware, and significant ease of compiling major open source software compared to Windows (most of them are targeted at Linux builds, with Windows builds being and afterthought, and mostly also provided through crosscompilation)

GUI and device drivers-wise, Microsoft always has had Linux beat flat for the past 20 years. Case in point; argue all you want, but much of the in-kernel WiFi drivers, especially for USB adapters, are utterly broken in some way or another. Only Intel and Qualcomm Atheros hardware can be said to work 'almost' perfectly. And as always, most, if not all of the existing 80211ac usb WiFi adapters in the market do not even have in-kernel drivers.

[indepe]

Case in point; argue all you want, but much of the in-kernel WiFi drivers, especially for USB adapters, are utterly broken in some way or another. Only Intel and Qualcomm Atheros hardware can be said to work 'almost' perfectly. And as always, most, if not all of the existing 80211ac usb WiFi adapters in the market do not even have in-kernel drivers.

I just went through the torture of trying to find a 'long' range USB Wifi adapter for Linux. I'm not completely confident yet that it is going to work with all distributions I'll want to use. Wouldn't really be a problem if one just knew which ones work and which don't. I think what's needed is a Linux oriented Website where users can post reviews with 1-5 stars and keyword-searchable for which distribution and kernel version they used it with. For all hardware and periphery.