Here is the latest instalment of Steam's Hardware Survey, as usual we do our monthly thing and compare it and talk about it to make sure you know not to use it as a hard figure.
Linux results for June 2014
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 64 bit 0.48% +0.06%
Linux 3.10 64 bit 0.09% +0.01%
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 0.08% +0.01%
Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS 64 bit 0.07% -0.01%
Linux Mint 17 Qiana 64 bit 0.07% +0.07%
Linux Mint 16 Petra 64 bit 0.05% -0.03%
Total: 1.20%
Last Month: 1.13%
My thoughts on it
Ubuntu is still king then I see with no other distro even coming close to knocking them off. I will be extremely surprised if that ever changes too.
It's nice to see an increase even something as small as 0.07%. I am still hoping games like Counter Strike: Global Offensive and the SteamOS Steam Machines will help it rise.
Things to note
Distro-hoppers will mess up the statistics as well, Linux users are far more likely to switch between different distributions than say a Windows user due to how many we have.
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.
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.
Final Note: Look at it this way, Steam has around 75 million active users, 1% of 75 million is about 750,000 people. What developer wouldn't want to hook into a market that big? We are still under-represented in my eyes but lets not over-state it as developers won't see even close to that many sales just yet from us. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Linux results for June 2014
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 64 bit 0.48% +0.06%
Linux 3.10 64 bit 0.09% +0.01%
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 0.08% +0.01%
Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS 64 bit 0.07% -0.01%
Linux Mint 17 Qiana 64 bit 0.07% +0.07%
Linux Mint 16 Petra 64 bit 0.05% -0.03%
Total: 1.20%
Last Month: 1.13%
My thoughts on it
Ubuntu is still king then I see with no other distro even coming close to knocking them off. I will be extremely surprised if that ever changes too.
It's nice to see an increase even something as small as 0.07%. I am still hoping games like Counter Strike: Global Offensive and the SteamOS Steam Machines will help it rise.
Things to note
Distro-hoppers will mess up the statistics as well, Linux users are far more likely to switch between different distributions than say a Windows user due to how many we have.
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.
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.
Final Note: Look at it this way, Steam has around 75 million active users, 1% of 75 million is about 750,000 people. What developer wouldn't want to hook into a market that big? We are still under-represented in my eyes but lets not over-state it as developers won't see even close to that many sales just yet from us. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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19 comments
Well I'm not a distro hopper but I'm not a fan of Debian based distros. No point arguing here which distro is better but I'm sure there is at least another half of this percentage undocumented on other Linux distributions.
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I do not think we will se a real rise here before steam os will lunch officially.
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Segata Sanshiro Jul 3, 2014
Could we not do a poll on GOL? I'm quite curious to have an idea of how many Linux users still dual boot or use Wine. Have not seen any stats out there showing that kind of thing, so would be cool to do a monthly GOL survey at the same time as the Steam one to get details like these and how they're changing over time (like how many people switched from dual booting to Linux only after XCOM and Civ 5). If anyone knows how to fix up a simple questionnaire and Liam is ok with it being on GOL, I would be happy to help.
On another note, I have a feeling that dual booters bring down the stats more than distro hoppers. And I still have no idea what using Wine is counted as.
On another note, I have a feeling that dual booters bring down the stats more than distro hoppers. And I still have no idea what using Wine is counted as.
2 Likes, Who?
I especially thinks Linux user are underestimated. If you look at humble bundle sales, then Linux users pay way more dollar on average for a bundle.
E.g.:
Average purchase:
$5.92
Average Windows:
$5.78
Average Mac:
$6.83
Average Linux:
$7.05
E.g.:
Average purchase:
$5.92
Average Windows:
$5.78
Average Mac:
$6.83
Average Linux:
$7.05
1 Likes, Who?
Could we not do a poll on GOL?Good idea! These would be question I would be curious to see:
- CPU
- RAM
- Graphic card (Intel/AMD/Nvidia) and drivers (Proprietary/Open source)
- Number of games owned on Linux and Windows (not necessarily on Steam, free games count if installed and played at least a few times)
- Number of Linux games on Steam and number of Linux games that can be installed/played without Steam (don't want to use DRM-free since Steam is considered DRM by some and not DRM by others)
- Budget available to buy games per year
- Services you buy games from (Humble bundle / Steam / ...)
- How much do you play? (a lot (at least once everyday) / sometimes (at least once every week), every now and then (at least once every month))
- Did you ever buy a game just to support Linux but haven't played it? If yes why not (not interested / current Linux box not powerful enough / ...)
- Are you on Steam? If yes do you collect cards on Steam? What is your Steam level?
- Do you run steam under wine?
- Do you dual boot Linux/Win? If yes, what is the percentage of time played on Linux compared to Windows? What are the reason for dual booting? (game not ported / game ported but better performance on windows / ...)
- Do you plan to buy a Steam Box when available? (Yes / No, I'll just build one / No, I play on a normal distro, not interested in SteamOS)
...
2 Likes, Who?
Is that really that important to get all that ? keep it simple like eg.
Distro, use wine ? dualboot ?
Who really uses non Proprietary drivers for gaming. I know there are games that are not 3D, but c'mon.
Distro, use wine ? dualboot ?
Who really uses non Proprietary drivers for gaming. I know there are games that are not 3D, but c'mon.
1 Likes, Who?
Who really uses non Proprietary drivers for gaming. I know there are games that are not 3D, but c'mon.
One of the Editors of this very website, including for a wide assortment of 3D titles, and I am far from being alone on this. To me, the choice of drivers is at least as important a statistic as whether or not someone is dual booting (which I do not do) or uses WINE (which I only do for old titles).
Still, the main reason I am posting here is to throw my support behind the idea of a GOL survey - it does not need to be monthly if that is too much work, but even a yearly GOL Linux Choice Awards like I recall Linux Journal doing back in the day would be interesting, if tiered more for gaming.
3 Likes, Who?
oldrocker99 Jul 3, 2014
+1 for a survey. I've seen people complaining about certain games, which run fine for me, not running for them (and they've got a GTX780, and I have a 650ti
).
).
2 Likes, Who?
I have gotten the Hardware survey 6 or 7 times now using Manjaro. In that time I also got it 2 or 3 times on the Windows side of one of my laptops. I think you are more likely to get the survey consistently if you always take it on whatever OS you are currently using.
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There are no significant increase yet, even CS:GO will not improve situation in numbers... There are should be hardware pushing with Ubuntu/Debian preinstalled, only then may be...
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Windows 7 64 bit
49.41%
-1.12%
Windows 8.1 64 bit
16.19%
+0.85%
People dont even bother to switch to another OS for the sake of another OS.
Actually what most people doing is using their OS as a launcher.
I have a friend that is fanatic with Battlefied 4 he has 2 icons only on his desktop Firefox and BF4 nothing else is installed.
People are going to switch to Linux if and only one AAA Game is performing better than Windows and is a must have game at that time. Call it Battlefield 6 , CoD6, Fifa 2017 etc.
I predict a sabotage from Valve :P
Lets say they release Serious Sam 4 or Half-Life 3(cough) --- the game is crashing and freezing in windows but is performing amazing in Linux. Windows Users are frustrated from Valve.....
Valve responds about crashing & freezes on windows "Get a real OS switch to Linux"
49.41%
-1.12%
Windows 8.1 64 bit
16.19%
+0.85%
People dont even bother to switch to another OS for the sake of another OS.
Actually what most people doing is using their OS as a launcher.
I have a friend that is fanatic with Battlefied 4 he has 2 icons only on his desktop Firefox and BF4 nothing else is installed.
People are going to switch to Linux if and only one AAA Game is performing better than Windows and is a must have game at that time. Call it Battlefield 6 , CoD6, Fifa 2017 etc.
I predict a sabotage from Valve :P
Lets say they release Serious Sam 4 or Half-Life 3(cough) --- the game is crashing and freezing in windows but is performing amazing in Linux. Windows Users are frustrated from Valve.....
Valve responds about crashing & freezes on windows "Get a real OS switch to Linux"
1 Likes, Who?
"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."
I don't see how this is of any relevance to anything since the topic here is Linux share of Steam users.
To put it this way; There's plenty of Windows users out there who don't use Steam too - but that's just as irrelevant.
I don't see how this is of any relevance to anything since the topic here is Linux share of Steam users.
To put it this way; There's plenty of Windows users out there who don't use Steam too - but that's just as irrelevant.
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Haven't received a survey for a long long time. Pressed 'No, Thanks' yesterday :D Why? I decided to play Assetto Corsa on windows. Such luck :D
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...You made my day!
Lets say they release Serious Sam 4 or Half-Life 3(cough) --- the game is crashing and freezing in windows but is performing amazing in Linux. Windows Users are frustrated from Valve.....
Valve responds about crashing & freezes on windows "Get a real OS switch to Linux"
Sadly, this is real only in parallel universe (yet).
1 Likes, Who?
LinuxGamesTV Jul 4, 2014
+1 for a survey. I've seen people complaining about certain games, which run fine for me, not running for them (and they've got a GTX780, and I have a 650ti
+1
1 Likes, Who?
Segata Sanshiro Jul 4, 2014
"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."
I don't see how this is of any relevance to anything since the topic here is Linux share of Steam users.
To put it this way; There's plenty of Windows users out there who don't use Steam too - but that's just as irrelevant.
Well, a GOL survey would let us find out if that's the case since it would survey all GOL users, not just Steam users :)
2 Likes, Who?
Article mentions that the survey didn't go out to everyone so we may have more than 1.20%...that can easily go the other way too. In my experience, Linux users are more passionate about their OS, and while "A survey? No thanks, stop wasting my time." is a common answer, I have no problem imagining more people than myself say "Survey? Hell yeah, Linux users REPRESENT!"
About bundling Linux with hardware, that could ruin some twat's school year.
Good to see the arrows pointing upwards. Even a minor percentage shift means a lot of users. If we do a survey, it would be fun to see who used Linux before and recently started gaming, and who played games before and recently switched to Linux for it. In other words, where are the new users coming from?
About bundling Linux with hardware, that could ruin some twat's school year.
Good to see the arrows pointing upwards. Even a minor percentage shift means a lot of users. If we do a survey, it would be fun to see who used Linux before and recently started gaming, and who played games before and recently switched to Linux for it. In other words, where are the new users coming from?
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If we do a survey, it would be fun to see who used Linux before and recently started gaming, and who played games before and recently switched to Linux for it.
Or those of us who have used Linux and played games on it for quite some time now - we do exist you know. I do accept that we are less interesting from a population change point of view, however.
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