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Here is the latest instalment of Steam's Hardware Survey, as usual we do our monthly thing and compare it and talk about it and make sure you know not to use it as a hard figure.
Linux results for October 2013
Ubuntu 13.04 64 bit 0.35% -0.10%
Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS 64 bit 0.18% 0.00%
Ubuntu 13.10 64 bit 0.15% +0.15%
Linux Mint 15 Olivia 64 bit 0.11% 0.00%
Linux 64 bit 0.10% 0.00%
Ubuntu 13.04 0.09% -0.03%
Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS 0.08% +0.01%
Total: 1.06%
Last Month: 1.03%
My thoughts on it
So we increased by a total of 0.03%, not exactly much of an increase and could be put down to any number of reasons but it's good to see us hold steady at least!
I expect it to rise over the next year but very slowly, honestly by the end of 2014 if we aren't closing the gap with Mac OS X I will be surprised, it all depends on how SteamOS is shown in the surveys.
Things to note
The Other category may contain a few of the smaller Linux distro's like Fedora, Gentoo and Arch for example.
0.66% -0.06%
Especially when before the main stats did contain quite a few more Linux distro's it's safe to assume some of the % is Linux as well.
There is this long bug report on Valve's github where a fair few users are stating they have never even seen the survey under Linux. I am one of them, yet I am logged in everyday.
Just be aware these results will probably not be that accurate as we don't know how they do their percentage results, they could be rounding up, rounding down or truncating the percentages. So a 0.5% could actually be nearly 0.6% as it could be 0.59% but they could do no rounding and simply truncate it.
Also it won't be every Steam user (it's a survey not a full statistic) so it can be as simple as not actually showing the survey to many Linux people. Let's face it we know they don't survey 100% of their user base, only a small fraction of it, so bear that in mind as well. Personally I am still yet to see it under Linux so it's not counting me that's for sure and I am logged in every day!
Also to note is that Linux is apparently only sitting at around 1.28% of the worldwide desktop share anyway according to Net Applications. Their reporting should also be taken lightly too since it's all using web-based counters.
Linux users typically shy away from any form of DRM, so you can bet there is a large bunch of Linux users who just simply refuse to use Steam.
Lastly apologies for being so late on this, no one reminded me! Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Linux results for October 2013
Ubuntu 13.04 64 bit 0.35% -0.10%
Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS 64 bit 0.18% 0.00%
Ubuntu 13.10 64 bit 0.15% +0.15%
Linux Mint 15 Olivia 64 bit 0.11% 0.00%
Linux 64 bit 0.10% 0.00%
Ubuntu 13.04 0.09% -0.03%
Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS 0.08% +0.01%
Total: 1.06%
Last Month: 1.03%
My thoughts on it
So we increased by a total of 0.03%, not exactly much of an increase and could be put down to any number of reasons but it's good to see us hold steady at least!
I expect it to rise over the next year but very slowly, honestly by the end of 2014 if we aren't closing the gap with Mac OS X I will be surprised, it all depends on how SteamOS is shown in the surveys.
Things to note
The Other category may contain a few of the smaller Linux distro's like Fedora, Gentoo and Arch for example.
0.66% -0.06%
Especially when before the main stats did contain quite a few more Linux distro's it's safe to assume some of the % is Linux as well.
There is this long bug report on Valve's github where a fair few users are stating they have never even seen the survey under Linux. I am one of them, yet I am logged in everyday.
Just be aware these results will probably not be that accurate as we don't know how they do their percentage results, they could be rounding up, rounding down or truncating the percentages. So a 0.5% could actually be nearly 0.6% as it could be 0.59% but they could do no rounding and simply truncate it.
Also it won't be every Steam user (it's a survey not a full statistic) so it can be as simple as not actually showing the survey to many Linux people. Let's face it we know they don't survey 100% of their user base, only a small fraction of it, so bear that in mind as well. Personally I am still yet to see it under Linux so it's not counting me that's for sure and I am logged in every day!
Also to note is that Linux is apparently only sitting at around 1.28% of the worldwide desktop share anyway according to Net Applications. Their reporting should also be taken lightly too since it's all using web-based counters.
Linux users typically shy away from any form of DRM, so you can bet there is a large bunch of Linux users who just simply refuse to use Steam.
Lastly apologies for being so late on this, no one reminded me! Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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18 comments
another month and no survey for me :( ....ah.
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I actually got the survey once last month. To test it, I cancelled it out and came right back and it came up again.
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"There is [this long bug report](https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/2286) on Valve's github where a fair few users are stating they have never even seen the survey under Linux."
How is not being part of a randomly selected sample a bug? If the survey under-represents Linux for some reason THAT would be an issue. But a particular person not getting the survey?
How is not being part of a randomly selected sample a bug? If the survey under-represents Linux for some reason THAT would be an issue. But a particular person not getting the survey?
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I saw a lot of people on steam forums using Arch, and I'd guess they're not a small amount of persons (roughly 1/3rd of the comments were "same thing here, arch linux". So that figure may be higher than we thought.
Though, I'm pretty sure we won't be over 3-5 % in 2014, we'll see :).
Though, I'm pretty sure we won't be over 3-5 % in 2014, we'll see :).
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I got the survey this month and it was a first that showed up for me since I've been using Steam on Linux.
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I find it mildly amusing that the fraction of people using an officially supported distro (Ubuntu 12.04 and 12.10 if I recall) is actually pretty small (0.26% from what I see here, though I don't see 12.10 listed).
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I saw a lot of people on steam forums using Arch, and I'd guess they're not a small amount of persons (roughly 1/3rd of the comments were "same thing here, arch linux". So that figure may be higher than we thought.+1 Arch is very big I would easily say top 5 distro in usage. Could be as high as 3, especially if you lump all the *buntu's together.
Though, I'm pretty sure we won't be over 3-5 % in 2014, we'll see :).
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Often when booting back to Windows, I'm asked to be surveyed. Never on Ubuntu ! Strange...
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Qantourisc Nov 18, 2013
Also on top of the not-getting-survey: how accurate are these tests ? Are they accurate to 0.03% ?!?
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I also noticed that Arch is overrepresented in support forums regarding Linux. Is it more popular than I am aware of, or does it have problems in regard to gaming?
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Also on top of the not-getting-survey: how accurate are these tests ? Are they accurate to 0.03% ?!?In your Steam client go to
Help > System Information
This is the data sent to Valve for these surveys. Why they don't just gather this data at login I'll never understand.
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another month and no survey for me :( ....ah.It´s the same to me.
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FutureSuture Nov 18, 2013
I would like that as well. It should be opt out instead of opt in and should be for everybody, not a random sample.Also on top of the not-getting-survey: how accurate are these tests ? Are they accurate to 0.03% ?!?In your Steam client go to
Help > System Information
This is the data sent to Valve for these surveys. Why they don't just gather this data at login I'll never understand.
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I'm not sure the survey thing is a bug. Maybe you've just been unlucky. I've been asked to take the survey on my Linux, Mac, and Windows system (in that order). Although I only took the survey on my Linux ;-)
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I got the survey on ARCH 64bit, the OS was shown as "Linux 64bit"
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How will the HW part of the survey count someone on a laptop using a vidock? Or will the survey explode?
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