Valve have released the Steam Hardware Survey results for October, so it is also time to release our own survey results. 857 people completed the survey, making our sample size 187 people larger than last time, so thanks everyone!
The changes in the questions seemed to have worked well and the data should hopefully be far more accurate this time. There are still a few minor things to iron out, but the questions will mostly remain the same so we can see trends developing a few months down the line.
I will not compare results with those from the first “experimental” survey since many of the questions have changed now that the survey has taken a more permanent form - mostly the fact that the first survey was not time-specific. For now, you can either check out the previous survey results and try and draw your own conclusions, or wait until next month when comparisons can be done.
There were also two comments sections which yielded mixed results (mostly not being used for what they were intended) however, many comments give interesting insights so I’ll also make a few observations about those, but will get rid of them for the new survey.
Do you currently use Linux as your primary PC gaming platform?
Did you exclusively buy Linux-supported games last month?
What proportion of games did you play through Wine last month?
What proportion of PC games did you play on your Windows partition last month?
If you stopped using Windows last month completely for gaming, please state your reasons why (ie. a new game release, realised you never use it, etc.)
Unfortunately, this section was filled with "windows is crap" type comments which - although true - makes it very difficult to distinguish whether or not the people commenting stopped using Windows or not last month. This will therefore be replaced with a "did you stop using Windows last month?" and "if so, why?" style question where you have to respond to the first part to be able to respond to the latter.
However, some of the most common reasons cited for stopping Windows usage altogether were the release of Civilization V, XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Dota 2. Getting the format of this question right may mean that we see spikes in people leaving Windows altogether that coincide with big releases - like CS:GO and Borderlands 2 last month.
What distribution do your primary Linux gaming PC?
What Desktop Environment do you use on your primary Linux gaming PC?
This was a new question for this survey, and it has yielded some very interesting results. Although distributions seem to be mostly Debian-based, Desktop Environments are a completely mixed bag. The most popular was Unity, suggesting many out there are using vanilla Ubuntu.
These results sort of sum up the DE situation at the moment, with many major DEs having changed their design radically over the last few years and many more having appeared as a result - usage is completely fragmented over all of them. The "other" responses are mainly people who don't use a DE and use windowing managers like i3, FluxBox and OpenBox - so I will add none as an option.
Did you change your primary Linux gaming distribution last month?
What graphics card do you use on your primary Linux gaming PC?
Which drivers do you use for that graphics card?
This was another new question. Open Source drivers (AMD, Intel and Nvidia combined) made up just 18% of the total. I have heard that the Open Source AMD drivers are quickly catching up to the proprietary ones in terms of performance, so this may quickly change.
There were also comments suggesting that "updated" and "official" drivers can be quite subjective depending on the distribution, so this will now be limited to two choices (Open Source and Proprietary).
Personally the reason I don't use Open Source drivers is that I paid a good amount of money for my graphics card so want to get the most performance out of it possible, however if the nouveau drivers get within a 10% performance margin of the proprietary ones some day, then I will most likely switch. Why do you use the drivers you use? I'm quite curious.
What CPU do you use on your primary Linux gaming distribution?
Which of these retailers did you use to buy your Linux games last month?
How many Linux games did you buy last month?
Unique question - Have you bought Tropico 5?
Not surprising that it was quite low considering strategy isn't the biggest of markets. If you are still on the fence about this one, I recommend getting it! The campaign was very enjoyable and the game really did a lot to add replay value which previous iterations didn't have. However, if you have either Tropico 3 or 4, I would recommend getting this one on sale since although the changes are plenty, they are quite subtle and gameplay is essentially an improved version of the same thing.
Conclusions
The results were certainly interesting and more refined than last time. I think one issue which this survey has shown is some pretty major differences with Valve's survey. For instance, the AMD CPU market share is 8% higher on our survey and they don't seem to show GPU manufacturers on there. Like Valve's survey, ours isn't perfect either and obviously gaming websites as a whole tend to have a certain demographic as a readership (ie. less "casual" gamers) so such differences could be attributed to people playing a few 2D games on their integrated card simply not reading GOL. Nevertheless, this gives us the best insights into Linux gamers we have at the moment.
The new Survey for November is available here - so please fill that in if you have the time. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
The changes in the questions seemed to have worked well and the data should hopefully be far more accurate this time. There are still a few minor things to iron out, but the questions will mostly remain the same so we can see trends developing a few months down the line.
I will not compare results with those from the first “experimental” survey since many of the questions have changed now that the survey has taken a more permanent form - mostly the fact that the first survey was not time-specific. For now, you can either check out the previous survey results and try and draw your own conclusions, or wait until next month when comparisons can be done.
There were also two comments sections which yielded mixed results (mostly not being used for what they were intended) however, many comments give interesting insights so I’ll also make a few observations about those, but will get rid of them for the new survey.
Do you currently use Linux as your primary PC gaming platform?
Did you exclusively buy Linux-supported games last month?
What proportion of games did you play through Wine last month?
What proportion of PC games did you play on your Windows partition last month?
If you stopped using Windows last month completely for gaming, please state your reasons why (ie. a new game release, realised you never use it, etc.)
Unfortunately, this section was filled with "windows is crap" type comments which - although true - makes it very difficult to distinguish whether or not the people commenting stopped using Windows or not last month. This will therefore be replaced with a "did you stop using Windows last month?" and "if so, why?" style question where you have to respond to the first part to be able to respond to the latter.
However, some of the most common reasons cited for stopping Windows usage altogether were the release of Civilization V, XCOM: Enemy Unknown and Dota 2. Getting the format of this question right may mean that we see spikes in people leaving Windows altogether that coincide with big releases - like CS:GO and Borderlands 2 last month.
What distribution do your primary Linux gaming PC?
What Desktop Environment do you use on your primary Linux gaming PC?
This was a new question for this survey, and it has yielded some very interesting results. Although distributions seem to be mostly Debian-based, Desktop Environments are a completely mixed bag. The most popular was Unity, suggesting many out there are using vanilla Ubuntu.
These results sort of sum up the DE situation at the moment, with many major DEs having changed their design radically over the last few years and many more having appeared as a result - usage is completely fragmented over all of them. The "other" responses are mainly people who don't use a DE and use windowing managers like i3, FluxBox and OpenBox - so I will add none as an option.
Did you change your primary Linux gaming distribution last month?
What graphics card do you use on your primary Linux gaming PC?
Which drivers do you use for that graphics card?
This was another new question. Open Source drivers (AMD, Intel and Nvidia combined) made up just 18% of the total. I have heard that the Open Source AMD drivers are quickly catching up to the proprietary ones in terms of performance, so this may quickly change.
There were also comments suggesting that "updated" and "official" drivers can be quite subjective depending on the distribution, so this will now be limited to two choices (Open Source and Proprietary).
Personally the reason I don't use Open Source drivers is that I paid a good amount of money for my graphics card so want to get the most performance out of it possible, however if the nouveau drivers get within a 10% performance margin of the proprietary ones some day, then I will most likely switch. Why do you use the drivers you use? I'm quite curious.
What CPU do you use on your primary Linux gaming distribution?
Which of these retailers did you use to buy your Linux games last month?
How many Linux games did you buy last month?
Unique question - Have you bought Tropico 5?
Not surprising that it was quite low considering strategy isn't the biggest of markets. If you are still on the fence about this one, I recommend getting it! The campaign was very enjoyable and the game really did a lot to add replay value which previous iterations didn't have. However, if you have either Tropico 3 or 4, I would recommend getting this one on sale since although the changes are plenty, they are quite subtle and gameplay is essentially an improved version of the same thing.
Conclusions
The results were certainly interesting and more refined than last time. I think one issue which this survey has shown is some pretty major differences with Valve's survey. For instance, the AMD CPU market share is 8% higher on our survey and they don't seem to show GPU manufacturers on there. Like Valve's survey, ours isn't perfect either and obviously gaming websites as a whole tend to have a certain demographic as a readership (ie. less "casual" gamers) so such differences could be attributed to people playing a few 2D games on their integrated card simply not reading GOL. Nevertheless, this gives us the best insights into Linux gamers we have at the moment.
The new Survey for November is available here - so please fill that in if you have the time. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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If that's what people want though then I guess they should get it. I have a feeling that we need a solid replacement for X implemented and in widespread use first though if Linux is to have multi-monitor support on par with Windows.
multi monitors for gaming is less about having a bigger screen and more about peripheral vision input. Arguably it doesn't make a ton of sense for a lot of non FPS type games though if it works then why not. For a FPS type game you don't really spend much time if any actually looking at the side monitors, but they are there to fill in peripheral information and are great for immersion. When walking down a hallway it really does feel like walking down a hallway almost.
I'm pretty sure you are correct about needing a solid X replacement before it can become mainstream for Linux as there are too many hurdles right now. I'm sure even in the Windows world the amount of surround/eyefinity gamers is a small percentage. Small percentage or not, once you have tried it an decided you like it.. there is no going back really. I have a list of games that my rig simply can't handle @ 5760x1080 so they are on the back burner until I can. Trying to play an FPS especially on a single monitor pretty much feels like having tunnel vision and is awkward to me now.
What I have read about wayland implies that it should make a lot of the problems associated with multiple monitors a thing of the past and I hope it does.
I have never used anything else since 2002. Except for just having a look/fiddle.
In fact for me KDE is Linux. If KDE didn't exist I am unsure if I would have ever made the permanent switch to Linux at all. The rest seem so limited in options/configuration/eye candy and polish. (ALL MY OWN OPINION :)
If your computer is up to the job of playing games, I doubt your DE will change anything.
Here is the average frame rate shown at the end of Unigine Valley in benchmark mode for a comparison. https://unigine.com/products/valley/
KDE - 60.6
TWN - 60.7 (does it get lighter than this?) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twm
Razor-qt - 60.7 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razor-qt
openbox - 60.7 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openbox
*Sep X* - 60.8 (a seperate x-session without any DE or WM at all) https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Gaming#Starting_games_in_a_separate_X_server
At least for me it makes no difference. 0.1 is nothing. A simple re-bench can lead to more than that in difference. No need to change from what you like most just to game with.
Pick the Environment you like and be happy knowing your performance will be just fine.
My System
Manjaro 64bit KDE
i74770k cpu
GTX660ti 2gb with 343.22 driver
16gb ram
I remember, I had a discussion with one man. He said, that the GNU GPL is the primary reason of using Linux. But survey show, that most linux gamers don`t use free drivers. Instead, they use proprietary drivers.
Anyway, some nice stats here. I hope to be able to fill in the next one.
The link's at the bottom of this article! I missed filling it in last time too
Keep up the good work Segata, very interesting.
Seemingly this is for Ubuntu graphics drivers what "experimental" is for Debian
- the use-at-your-own-risk stuff: https://launchpad.net/~xorg-edgers
Wow, that made me want to play it more :D
What part of it is anti communist propaganda though?
Just that it looks like Cuba, or that it is as corrupt as the communist states were?
I would say that was accurate of the old ones but not so much this one. The old games were mostly inaccurate stereotypical representations of Caribbean countries, with other leaders from Latin America thrown in to make the generalisations even more insensitive (ie. having Juan Peron as the leader of a "banana republic" seems somewhat ludicrous.
I'd say this one is a more accurate portrayal of the historical realities of the Central American region - foreign intervention and a desire for control over its resources by foreign powers having destroyed the region and encouraged corrupt despots which responded directly to them.
I still think Cuba gets a bit too harsh treatment. It's a poor region, but Cuba stands out against its neighbours with one of the highest literacy rates in the world, one of the best healthcare systems in the world, lower corruption than its neighbours and higher GDP per capita than its neighbours...
But the game is supposed to be comedic, so I would hardly call it "propaganda". It's just as much a critique of Capitalism as it is Communism in this sense. If anything I would say it pokes more fun at imperialist attitudes of Western countries than anything else. COD on the other hand, I would have to agree.
Interesting, this is the first time I have come across this. Thanks for the clarification.
Thanks for the results! Did the survey. =)
Keep up the excellent work!