UPDATE: It seems Valve adjusted the survey after both we and Phoronix covered it, the actual percentage is 1.12%, so we actually dropped by a few % this month.
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 2014
Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS 64 bit 0.52% +0.09%
Linux Mint 17 Qiana 64 bit 0.13% +0.03%
Linux 3.10 64 bit 0.10% +0.02%
Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS 0.08% +0.02%
Total: 1.18% + 0.02%
Last Month: 1.16%
My thoughts on it
It seems that - although small - Linux usage has been seeing an increase among Steam users. This could be attributed to a number of factors, including the much bigger and better range in games we're seeing.
Just for comparison, the figure for overall Linux usage this time last year was 1.06%.
Things to note
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 remember it is a survey, so it won't ask every single one of you to do it. It would only be truly accurate if it did it behind the scenes, but that's not what a survey is for this is just to get a general idea.
The stats are also quite different to our own survey. For example, Steam states that around 20% of Linux users use AMD CPUs, while our own survey puts that number closer to 30%. You can compare these stats yourself to see some discrepancies and take into account that neither survey is perfect.
Final Note: Look at it this way, Steam has around 100 million active users, 1% of 100 million is about 1,000,000 (1 million) people. What developer wouldn't want to hook into a market that big?
Final, Final Note
This monthly article used to be done by Liam. It's a pretty important thing to have because it gives us an idea of the growth of Linux gaming. Unfortunately, I have a few other articles which I take care of here so it would be nice to get a volunteer from the GOL community to do this. It is just once a month and very quick to do.
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 2014
Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS 64 bit 0.52% +0.09%
Linux Mint 17 Qiana 64 bit 0.13% +0.03%
Linux 3.10 64 bit 0.10% +0.02%
Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS 0.08% +0.02%
Total: 1.18% + 0.02%
Last Month: 1.16%
My thoughts on it
It seems that - although small - Linux usage has been seeing an increase among Steam users. This could be attributed to a number of factors, including the much bigger and better range in games we're seeing.
Just for comparison, the figure for overall Linux usage this time last year was 1.06%.
Things to note
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 remember it is a survey, so it won't ask every single one of you to do it. It would only be truly accurate if it did it behind the scenes, but that's not what a survey is for this is just to get a general idea.
The stats are also quite different to our own survey. For example, Steam states that around 20% of Linux users use AMD CPUs, while our own survey puts that number closer to 30%. You can compare these stats yourself to see some discrepancies and take into account that neither survey is perfect.
Final Note: Look at it this way, Steam has around 100 million active users, 1% of 100 million is about 1,000,000 (1 million) people. What developer wouldn't want to hook into a market that big?
Final, Final Note
This monthly article used to be done by Liam. It's a pretty important thing to have because it gives us an idea of the growth of Linux gaming. Unfortunately, I have a few other articles which I take care of here so it would be nice to get a volunteer from the GOL community to do this. It is just once a month and very quick to do.
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
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It seems Valve adjusted the survey after both we and Phoronix reported on it, as Phoronix also had a 1.18% mark on their article.