Steam Linux Usage For November: 0.27%

[ptyerman]

Hi everyone, new member here.
Thought I would reply to a couple of posts in this thread that certainly get some things wrong.
I'm not connected with IT in any way and I would think I'm not the only one, so not ALL Phoronix members/readers are administrators, programmers or in IT.
I have built, repaired and meddled with computers since the early eighties when I got my first computer (Sinclair ZX81), but am in no way an expert. I still use a Atari 800XL and several Commodore Amiga's.
Although while posting this I'm currently on Windows 7 I dual boot with Linux, for the last 3 year I've stuck with Linux Lite as it suits my needs and is stable, easily configurable and runs Linux Steam games flawlessly for me, it also runs quite a few old Windows games via Wine that don't even run under Windows any more. Also my system specs are pretty modest by today's standard, it is a first gen Core i7 920, 16Gb DDR3 and a AMD HD7970 video card, hardly groundbreaking. Sounds to me like someone has sour grapes rather than a legitimate complaint. If Fedora isn't doing it for you, choose something that will!
I can also be discounted from the Steam survey as I have never been asked either, makes you wonder just how many people have been skipped.

[some_canuck]

If Valve wanted accurate statistics, they would make the poll mandatory, and make sure that users actually get probed once a month. I haven't been asked in 4-6 months, and I switched my Steam computer to Linux 2 months ago.

[gutigone]

Woke up to see this from GoL: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articl...on-steam.10818

An interesting look, especially when you remove the rapidly rising Asian market on Steam.

[torsionbar28]

This site has a lot of tremendous investigative journalism in the form of benchmarks and looking for git commits and reporting from conferences. It's annoying that we can't have a week go by without a post about steam linux market share and cries of lügenpresse accompanying every one of them-- or the bizarre assertion that usage isn't "accurate" because the users are Chinese.

If you think linux isn't accurately represented in steam's numbers, then augment PTS with a way to test it empirically. It's not false just because it's unfavorable.

Its not that the numbers are false, I don't think anyone but you has made that assertion. It's that the market share percentages don't have value because we cannot see any of the underlying data.

Linux Steam users may be increasing every month - heck, they may be increasing by a LOT every month. But if the number of Windows users is ballooning due to new Chinese market share, the Linux *percentage* may be going down, even if the actual numbers are going up. And that's exactly the point of folks complaints here - that presenting the data in the form of mysterious percentages is totally and completely meaningless. The phrase "lies, damn lies, and statistics" comes to mind. Any student who has taken STAT 101 understands the problem with how Valve obfuscates the data as meaningless percentages.

[GI_Jack]

That's some high level bullshitting or trolling, can't decide which one. Count the number of triple AAA games for Linux and Windows - because that's where the money and people are. People will not install Linux only to play Indies. They want to actually game. Even Doom hasn't been released for Linux even though it uses Vulkan which is ostensibly 100% portable between OSes and even hardware devices (it's supported on mobile).
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This is true, but the rest of your comments are absolutely bullshit.

Linux fanboys always keep making up excuses why various surveys/statistics/etc lie. The sad thing is that they don't lie. The sad thing is that outside of Phoronix and Linux related websites, most people do not know what Linux is and they don't care either. They have life to live. They don't want to have sex with solving bugs, incompatibilities while swimming through regressions and slow downs.

This is so hypocritical its hilarious. Every other survey/stats on Linux use show Linux usage for the desktop is actually on the rise, and at an all time high. That said, many if not most Linux dorks know that this isn't relative as is. You see, Linux already is the most widely used OS on the planet right now. Also, in 2017 most people have heard of Linux. If you've actually had a job, you'd know that your company probably uses Linux servers at work. Most companies that sell servers support Linux. Unlike most Windows fanboys, Linux users are generally gainfully employed. In fact, its pretty damn hard not to be, because as soon as word gets around your are an unemployed linux expert, there is some company thats going to be hounding you to fix their servers.

Somehow you also missed that the computing world does not revolve around consumer desktops, neither the most amount of computers, nor the biggest market, nor the most important computers. Even further, gamers are not the most important demographic of hardware or software consumption.

Lets be real frank, windows gamers aren't having sex with bug reports, their jerking off to their anime waifus, fucking their love pillows while gulping down mountain dew in their parents basements, and they have little if any employable skills, because playing games and jerking off to cartoons isn't a life skill, but solving bugs is.

Linux users are filing bug reports and getting hired. So one thing you've got right is that Linux isn't a gaming platform. Linux desktop usage is small, but the people who use Linux on the desktop tend to be either sysadmins, developers, hackers, and the really technical types that have day jobs working on important stuff. I don't think I've ever met a Linux Desktop user that didn't also have a Linux server. In fact, most do the server first, and desktop second. I did.

You're also going to tell me that nVidia ported their binary driver to Linux, and FreeBSD and Solaris for gamers? Thats a laugh. Those drivers exist for professional workstations, render farms, and super computers. The first two are what UNIX was mainly built on.

So yes, there are more of you mountain dew swilling cheeto munching entitled fat consumer shits, but lets get one thing straight about you windows gamers. You're a bunch of fucking losers. You are unproductive non-contributing members of society. The already smaller portion of Linux desktop users aren't gamers, that your right. They're doing more productive shit with their time. The few that do game, dual boot.

If you're also going to tell me you're typical Windows gamer gets laid on a regular basis, or lives something close to a normal life, you gotta be shitting me. This is the same demographic that has a hard time admitting women as members, the same demographic who's spend more time spewing misogynistic hate because they can't get laid. The same self-centered demographic.

Now if you excuse me, I have to get back to my job. You know the one that pays six figures just to manage Linux infrastructure. I'll leave you to your basement, mountain dew, and cartoons.

[Guest]

@birdie

Winblows is freaking nightmare, so I don't know what you're trying to sell here. It's better for playing games right now (but not always), has usually better support from third party vendors, but that's all.

[torsionbar28]

Well Asians are also people you know.

Ugh, we don't need any SJW phoney racism in this discussion. Nobody here is denying the humanity of the Asian peoples, I promise.

And they, as most people choose windows. Even though I have Linux I am a windows user too, because it just works better, and it has more awesome features to offer compared to Linux. I do have virtual reality setup. On linux, it's useless, on windows, many apps, and tools are already created. Overall windows has so much more to offer. Proprietary apps, open source apps, everything works there.

I don't use Windows because it's so crippled and damned unpleasant to use, whereas Linux "just works" and I can customize it to fit my needs and preferences. Different strokes for different folks. But last time I checked, this article was not about debating the merits of one broken proprietary OS vs a robust Free OS.

PS. I find it interesting that you count the availability of Open Source software for MS Windows as a virtue of Microsoft, rather than an achievement of the Open Source community. You sure do have a "unique" worldview...

[Slobodan]

I have never got this survay on Linux. Never. But on WIndows I get it, of course.

[Slobodan]

Count the number of triple AAA games for Linux and Windows - because that's where the money and people are. People will not install Linux only to play Indies. They want to actually game.

Most of AAA games are crap, in my opinion. And I really don't understand how are Indie games not considered as "real games". So, if an independent develper releases a game on its own, without a publisher, that is not a game? Oh wow...

[Michael_S]

Most of AAA games are crap, in my opinion. And I really don't understand how are Indie games not considered as "real games". So, if an independent develper releases a game on its own, without a publisher, that is not a game? Oh wow...

I agree that most AAA games are crap... but my teenage sons don't. For one boy, none of the games he cares about are on Linux. For another, one or two he likes are there but that's it.

Still, I think the trend is in the right direction. As the cost of supporting Linux gets lower and as Microsoft pushes for their app store, I think more game companies will support Linux.