Linux Users Drop to Under 1% In Latest Steam Survey

[Steven Bogos]

Linux Users Drop to Under 1% In Latest Steam Survey

Linux and Mac OS's numbers dwindle even further in Steam's latest hardware survey.

Every month, Steam asks users to submit hardware information in order to compile it into this big push [http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey] to have Linux on Steam, the results of the survey has shown that Linux Steam users have dropped to a dismal 0.94% of all users, down from 1.05% last month.

Mac OS's numbers are also down to 3.16%, from 3.32% last month. Windows is, on the other hand, up to 95.81%. Could these dwindling numbers be one of the factors behind Oculus Rift's decision to halt Mac and Linux development? [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/140819-Oculus-Halts-Mac-Linux-Development] After all, if such a minuscule percentage of your audience is using these OSs, it does seem like a waste of resources to develop for them.

Other changes heralded by this month survey include the continued increase of 4 CPU adoption. 44.07% of Steam users are now using 4-CPU processes, compared to 48.42% still on a duo-core system. Nvidia still maintains a heavy lead in the graphics card wars, with 52.39% of the total share, compared to AMD's 27.95%.

Source: Valve [http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey]

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[matthewemz]

Dude...edit your damn article.

 

[oldtaku]

I realize it's self-fulfilling, but if you're gonna play games on a PC, anything but Windows is a second class experience. Tried it on Linux for a while, and even with Wine it was a horrible experience, especially with the drivers. Now I just use Linux for servers, Windows for gaming and desktop.

I've got one of those Linux on Desktop guys for a friend, refuses to run Windows or OSX (It's the Man, man!), but he couldn't deal with how bad Linux gaming was either, so now he games on consoles (and doesn't see the contradiction there). Probably what they're seeing here. Lots of good indie games on XB1 and PS4 now!

 

[SomeGuyOnHisComputer]

A lot of Linux users seem adverse to using Steam, DRM being a big part of it. Makes me wonder what GOG's numbers are, probably not much higher, but it would be interesting.

I switched to Linux shortly after building my first computer and haven?t looked back. I've outgrown Macs (I was an avid Mac user in the past.), and Windows has always striked me as badly designed. I occasionally boot into Windows for gaming, but Linux gaming has been surprisingly smooth, usually everything "just works", which is weird because the big problem with Linux is having to fix the goddamned thing all the time, but at least a buggy game has never screwed up my OS install like Serious Sam HD 2 on Windows.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

I think Valve has put Linux gaming on the back burner, to cook up some good ol' VR gumbo. I haven't heard anything new about Steam OS, Steam Boxes, Steam Machines, Steam turbines, or Steamed carrots in about 6 months. (And they flubbed the Steam Machines' "easier to optimize for" concept by letting any PC builder slap the label on their randomly configured products.)

That's the issue. Even when a company does try to break free of the MS stranglehold, they are unfocused and eventually lose interest. Almost no major game company really wants to waste money porting over their games to a barely used platform, and I don't believe WINE was ever even meant for games. We'll probably only see MS's market share drop below 90% if they ever make a really stupid mistake, like forcing GFWL(or rather an equally shitty successor) on everything or making the Windows license subscription-based.

 

[MazokuRanma]

If Valve truly wants Linux to be a viable alternative to Windows, they need to put some real money into ensuring quality drivers for graphics cards. That's the biggest weakness Linux has; the official drivers for graphics card tend to be incredibly sub-par. If they could remove that advantage from Windows then Linux would have a real shot at becoming a standard gaming OS.

 

[KyuubiNoKitsune-Hime]

If Valve truly wants Linux to be a viable alternative to Windows, they need to put some real money into ensuring quality drivers for graphics cards. That's the biggest weakness Linux has; the official drivers for graphics card tend to be incredibly sub-par. If they could remove that advantage from Windows then Linux would have a real shot at becoming a standard gaming OS.

The problem with that is that Valve doesn't control the drivers, Nvidia and AMD make the drivers. You can't make a game developer/publisher responsible for something that is totally the manufacturer's domain.

 

[MazokuRanma]

If Valve truly wants Linux to be a viable alternative to Windows, they need to put some real money into ensuring quality drivers for graphics cards. That's the biggest weakness Linux has; the official drivers for graphics card tend to be incredibly sub-par. If they could remove that advantage from Windows then Linux would have a real shot at becoming a standard gaming OS.

The problem with that is that Valve doesn't control the drivers, Nvidia and AMD make the drivers. You can't make a game developer/publisher responsible for something that is totally the manufacturer's domain.

They can't force them, no, but they can certainly offer a financial incentive to do so. That's why I mentioned only money and not time. They need to put together a contract that incentivizes AMD and nVidia to do so for them. After some predetermined amount of time they would then need to evaluate if the gains were worth continuing or not. In a best case scenario, the gains would become sufficient that AMD and nVidia would have their own incentive to continue updating their Linux drivers.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Wait wait wait! Linux is STILL a thing?! Wasn't it a stupid protest operating system from late 90s/early 00s for rich kids with too much allowance, 2+ Desktops and a desire to spend 8 Hours getting Starcraft to work at minimum settings?!
I could have sworn it was a legit system in the same way SCP is a legit government organization...

 

[Forest Phelps]

Wait wait wait! Linux is STILL a thing?! Wasn't it a stupid protest operating system from late 90s/early 00s for rich kids with too much allowance, 2+ Desktops and a desire to spend 8 Hours getting Starcraft to work at minimum settings?!
I could have sworn it was a legit system in the same way SCP is a legit government organization...

I started using it because I was too poor for a legit windows key. I cut my teeth on slackware. It's still a fantastic OS, just not really made for gaming. might have something to do with amd and nvidia both having relationships with microsoft and no real benefit to making good drivers for linux

 

[EndlessSporadic]

Despite what you haters think, Windows 7 AND 8.1 are actually good operating systems. Not great, but not bad either. They do the job provided. It has its GUI flaws, but that is all subjective. Linux users act all smug because they can customize, but when it comes down to it all they are doing is modding - it's the same damn thing you can do on Windows, and you have the benefit of having a functional operating system underneath it.

We need a new dedicated gaming operating system, but Linux most certainly isn't it. We need to get the most out of our rigs and Linux sure as hell can't do that without dedicated support, both external and internal. The fundamental concept of Linux means that it has no internal and that is a huge problem, and I am sure as shit that Valve is not going to be that internal. Hell, even if they were if we look at their previous track record they will either release useless updates every day or never release an update at all. After all, Valve does whatever the hell they want without listening to consumers.

 

[Ralancian]

Wait wait wait! Linux is STILL a thing?! Wasn't it a stupid protest operating system from late 90s/early 00s for rich kids with too much allowance, 2+ Desktops and a desire to spend 8 Hours getting Starcraft to work at minimum settings?!
I could have sworn it was a legit system in the same way SCP is a legit government organization...

Pretty much the world's servers run off Linux and Android is based on it. It most definitely is a thing but shouldn't be within 100 yards of a gaming PC. So yeah pretty much everyone who is using it is shooting themselves in the foot for no good reason.

Take Windows 8.1 it's poorly designed interface if you don't have a touch screen...however you barely use that interface once in a game (or ar all if you boot straight to desktop). Yet people don't upgrade because of it sadly that's a shame because games actually run better on it than they do in Windows 7.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Take Windows 8.1 it's poorly designed interface if you don't have a touch screen...however you barely use that interface once in a game (or ar all if you boot straight to desktop). Yet people don't upgrade because of it sadly that's a shame because games actually run better on it than they do in Windows 7.

Y'know something funny? Aside from there not being a start menu (which is something I hardly used since it first came out 20 years ago), my Windows defaults to the Desktop when I log in and all I did was use it once when I first installed 8.1. So that "poorly designed interface" doesn't even exist to me unless I hit the start button, which again is something I've never really used. I have most of my programs either shortcutted in a folder on the desktop, or the ones I use most are quicklaunched from the taskbar.
So yeah, people complain about the Start Menu interface but it really isn't a big deal if you're like me and never used the older version either. Personally I've ALWAYS found the Start Menu to be the weakest feature of Windows, yet that seems to be what people complain about most with 8.1. Its just an overlay and not perma-default...
Linux is too niche for people to use outside of tech circles, and poor for gaming. Sorry Linux users, its true.

 

[LongAndShort]

I'm a little surprised that Mac users are so low. I would have expected it to be higher with so many games being released these days on Windows and Mac (and Linux, I guess, but I can't really say I remember ever meeting a person that used Linux). Than again, I guess a lot of Mac users got used to not being able to use our machines for gaming (tis why I got into console gaming, and I reckon that's the same for a lot of people). Even now a lot of shit gets released that I want to play that I can't cause I got a Mac and it's only coming out on Windows.

 

[Albino Boo]

Wait wait wait! Linux is STILL a thing?! Wasn't it a stupid protest operating system from late 90s/early 00s for rich kids with too much allowance, 2+ Desktops and a desire to spend 8 Hours getting Starcraft to work at minimum settings?!
I could have sworn it was a legit system in the same way SCP is a legit government organization...

Pretty much the world's servers run off Linux and Android is based on it. It most definitely is a thing but shouldn't be within 100 yards of a gaming PC. So yeah pretty much everyone who is using it is shooting themselves in the foot for no good reason.

Take Windows 8.1 it's poorly designed interface if you don't have a touch screen...however you barely use that interface once in a game (or ar all if you boot straight to desktop). Yet people don't upgrade because of it sadly that's a shame because games actually run better on it than they do in Windows 7.

Err linux has slight edge in web servers (35.9% v 32.3%) but most of the world's servers are not linux. The vast majority of servers are running various versions of windows server O/S

I'm a little surprised that Mac users are so low. I would have expected it to be higher with so many games being released these days on Windows and Mac (and Linux, I guess, but I can't really say I remember ever meeting a person that used Linux). Than again, I guess a lot of Mac users got used to not being able to use our machines for gaming (tis why I got into console gaming, and I reckon that's the same for a lot of people). Even now a lot of shit gets released that I want to play that I can't cause I got a Mac and it's only coming out on Windows.

In the case of Macs its not the total user base which is the reason why things are released. Apple product user are more likely to buy and so have a higher average spend per user.

 

[inmunitas]

This article. These comments.

The survey results came out at the end of April. The survey picks a number of participants at random, to no ones surprise most of Steam users run Windows, so the likely hood of participants being Windows users is obviously going to be very high.

 

[Rednog]

This article. These comments.

The survey results came out at the end of April. The survey picks a number of participants at random, to no ones surprise most of Steam uses run Windows, so the likely hood of participants being Windows uses is obviously going to be very high.

What are you talking about, it's an ongoing survey from valve since 2013, it's measuring trends from people who opt in, not random. So maybe actually reply to a person's comment or post any kind of argument instead of just coming in, throwing up a stupid picture and calling everyone in the thread an idiot. If you think something is wrong prove it.

 

[Ralancian]

Err linux has slight edge in web servers (35.9% v 32.3%) but most of the world's servers are not linux. The vast majority of servers are running various versions of windows server O/S

Point being it's still pretty widely used just not in the desktop market. Alot of developers it and unix like systems(not Mac OS) are pretty much bread and butter for a lot of developers. Personally I've moved from Linux and Unix (C) to Windows (C#) and much prefer it for higher level programming but in reality most of the time it's about what's best for what your doing. When it comes to gaming you either want a dedicated console or a Windows Desktop anything else won't do the job as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems#Market_share_by_category

 

[Albino Boo]

Err linux has slight edge in web servers (35.9% v 32.3%) but most of the world's servers are not linux. The vast majority of servers are running various versions of windows server O/S

Point being it's still pretty widely used just not in the desktop market. Alot of developers it and unix like systems(not Mac OS) are pretty much bread and butter for a lot of developers. Personally I've moved from Linux and Unix (C) to Windows (C#) and much prefer it for higher level programming but in reality most of the time it's about what's best for what your doing. When it comes to gaming you either want a dedicated console or a Windows Desktop anything else won't do the job as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems#Market_share_by_category

So my 20 year career in IT is invalidated because you have changed to linux desktop. Hint a run a business that develops risk management tools for companies and I know what operating system business use in there own networks. This is what I wrote last week in this http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/538.875478-Linux-What-version-should-I-try-and-acclimitize-to thread.

You are right, but I kind of feel that if Windows does go in the direction I think it's going, a lot of people are going to say, "Fuck this." and look for an alternative.

We've seen this already with the perceptions around Vista, 7 and 8 within the US education system. I've done some work in tech support for a company that sells educational products with a very strong market share, and I had to spend more time with Mac than with Windows as a result of some bad MS business decisions. It is a Glacier, and it isn't going to be stopped anytime soon, but they're making mistakes. And they've been making a lot of them. I can't be the only MS fanboy that's turned around and said "eeh, this... This isn't what I want."

But then again, the IT sector could be like the gaming community. Everyone could just roll over and take it. I could be completely wrong.

There is no difference between what Valve wants to do and what you think windows is trying to do. It costs real money to turn linux into something as user friendly as Windows and someone is going to want to make a return on that investment. The big advantage that windows has in the business market is active directory. That allows a relatively small number of people to run large networks, reducing the total cost of ownership. There are LDAP server client setups for linux but the only one that can compete with AD are paid for versions which you existing staff don't know how to use. Retraining costs time and money which makes them more expensive to run. Migrating from one version of windows server to another is relatively easy, going from windows LDAP to Red Hat or Suse LDAP is effectively starting from scratch. This again adds to costs. I have sat in meetings and gone through the list with detailed costings many times. By buying windows you are spending upfront capital costs to reduce human resources needed. You can go for the linux desktop which is free but the back end increased human resources more than than outweigh any upfront savings.

 

[Ralancian]

So my 20 year career in IT is invalidated because you have changed to linux desktop. Hint a run a business that develops risk management tools for companies and I know what operating system business use in there own networks. This is what I wrote last week in this http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/538.875478-Linux-What-version-should-I-try-and-acclimitize-to thread.

WTF? Did you even read what I wrote (I'm guessing not because your saying I moved to Linux desktop when I said I'd done the exact opposite)? Why are you even jumping down my throat? I wasn't disagreeing with you or invalidating your work history. All I was trying to make a point was that Linux is not a dead operating system read the original post I was quoting.

This is why I hate posting on the internet at times people have a go at you when your trying to make the same bloody point just because your slightly wrong about something.