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Blimey, another month already? That's right here's the results of our latest Linux & SteamOS user survey.

I'm now leaving out the old/jokey left in question about what type of drivers people are using on Intel, as there's only one type.

Edit: These graphs were updated after the article was posted to account for when the results are actually for. You did this in February, but the answers relate to January.

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A much better amount this time around, thanks for your help sharing it, please do share it again for next month!

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No wonder there's so many issues with 4K monitors, hardly anyone uses them! I genuinely miss my old monitors, 1920x1080 is just simpler. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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20 comments

WorMzy Feb 25, 2016
I'm now leaving out the old/jokey left in question about what type of drivers people are using on Intel, as there's only one type.

Spoilsport. :P

Big dip in people buying from Steam over the previous month. I guess everyone bought what they wanted during the sale and have enough to be getting on with for now. There was a similar dip last year, but not nearly as pronounced.

I have actually upgraded my monitor from 1920x1080 to 2550x1440, and I think that's as high as I'm likely to go for the foreseeable future. I don't see the point in quadrupling your display size, then having to scale everything up to compensate. I already have to increase the zoom on some webpages.

Linux games bought (and related) graph(s) are interesting. I guess it coincides with xcom2.

Shouldn't do -- since XCOM only launched in February, that'll not show up until next month's survey.


Last edited by WorMzy on 25 February 2016 at 12:55 pm UTC
Eike Feb 25, 2016
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Linux games bought (and related) graph(s) are interesting. I guess it coincides with xcom2.

How? XCOM 2 wasn't available in january.

Ah... title is wrong?
Liam Dawe Feb 25, 2016
Linux games bought (and related) graph(s) are interesting. I guess it coincides with xcom2.

How? XCOM 2 wasn't available in january.

Ah... title is wrong?

The results are from February, but the answers are for January data if that makes sense.

Wasn't my choice, this just how it was setup originally and I took over.

I'm going to look at ways to re-do the survey and make it more accurate, unsure how right now. I am thinking possibly re-starting it and getting fresh data then from day-1. A hopefully easier option will be to get Feds who does the graphs to bump all the data back a month to show it correctly.


Last edited by Liam Dawe on 25 February 2016 at 1:17 pm UTC
Eike Feb 25, 2016
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I'm going to look at ways to re-do the survey and make it more accurate, unsure how right now. I am thinking possibly re-starting it and getting fresh data then from day-1. A hopefully easier option will be to get Feds who does the graphs to bump all the data back a month to show it correctly.

If you would do a whole new setup, I wonder if it should be more about gaming and less about Linux. E. g. I don't care a cent if people changed their distro last month (and I really wonder if that many do or if that many don't understand the question). I'd be more interested in say if they use a controller or a wheel, or what their most interesting game of the month was, or how much time they use for playing, ...
Keyrock Feb 25, 2016
"No wonder there's so many issues with 4K monitors, hardly anyone uses them! I genuinely miss my old monitors, 1920x1080 is just simpler."

1440p is the sweet spot for high end machines right now. I think we're still a couple GPU generations away from easy 4K. Even 4K monitors themselves are still in their infancy right now. I mean, you can run 4K right now, but you have to jump through some hoops.


Last edited by Keyrock on 25 February 2016 at 2:30 pm UTC
Beamboom Feb 25, 2016
1440p is the sweet spot for high end machines right now.

I very much agree. And for monitors under 35 inches - at the very least less than 30 - my not-so-humble opinion is that it's pretty much a waste with higher resolutions. We don't need such a high dpi unless we sit with our face almost planted IN the screen.
Segata Sanshiro Feb 25, 2016
I'm now leaving out the old/jokey left in question about what type of drivers people are using on Intel, as there's only one type.

:'(
Guest Feb 25, 2016
"No wonder there's so many issues with 4K monitors, hardly anyone uses them! I genuinely miss my old monitors, 1920x1080 is just simpler."

1440p is the sweet spot for high end machines right now. .

yup, running a 1440p screen and the overall hit on the GPU wasn't the 75% more of the pixels you get.

That said, 1080p is still easier for devs sadly. Some recent games ( unity ) dont even still offer 1440p and SteamOS is firmly fixed @ 1080p for the UI & for Games at the moment.. so i wouldn't be using SteamOS @ 1440p down to scaling quality

makes me wonder if i should get a 1080p flat screen or a 4k one down to higher input lag on scaling and poor 4k UI / game support :|


Last edited by on 25 February 2016 at 8:27 pm UTC
Liam Dawe Feb 25, 2016
Article has be re-done, please re-check folks.

Feds has done some great work re-doing the graphs, the Months on the graphs now match the correct month for the Data not the month we present it (so it's accurate now).

I'm now leaving out the old/jokey left in question about what type of drivers people are using on Intel, as there's only one type.

:'(

Hah, sorry! :)
I'm going to look at ways to re-do the survey and make it more accurate, unsure how right now. I am thinking possibly re-starting it and getting fresh data then from day-1. A hopefully easier option will be to get Feds who does the graphs to bump all the data back a month to show it correctly.

If you would do a whole new setup, I wonder if it should be more about gaming and less about Linux. E. g. I don't care a cent if people changed their distro last month (and I really wonder if that many do or if that many don't understand the question). I'd be more interested in say if they use a controller or a wheel, or what their most interesting game of the month was, or how much time they use for playing, ...
Very good comment, I will see what I can do. I also think the distro-hopping question really isn't needed at all for a gaming focused survey.
MaxPower Feb 25, 2016
May I do two suggestions:
* For the question Did you buy a Steam Machine ? it should be clarified what a Steam Machine is. Does a self build PC running SteamOS count as a Steam Machine ? or make a difference between a off the shelve Steam Machine and a self build dedicated SteamOS PC
* For the graph How many Linux games did you buy last month? a cumulative graph should be used from bottom to top 11+, 6-10, 3-5 and 1-2, None can be left out as it would be shown as a gap at the top for the graph. That way we could see how many people bought at least 1 game, 3 games, 6 games and 11 games.
khalismur Feb 25, 2016
Hmmm interesting


Last edited by khalismur on 25 February 2016 at 8:10 pm UTC
ElectricPrism Feb 25, 2016
"No wonder there's so many issues with 4K monitors, hardly anyone uses them! I genuinely miss my old monitors, 1920x1080 is just simpler."

1440p is the sweet spot for high end machines right now. .

yup, running a 1440p screen and the overall hit on the GPU wasn't the 75% more of the pixels you get.

That said, 1080p is still easier for devs sadly. Some recent games ( unity ) dont even still offer 1440p and SteamOS is firmly fixed @ 1080p for the UI & for Games at the moment.. so i wouldn't be using SteamOS @ 1440p down to scaling quality

makes me wonder if i should get a 1080p flat screen or a 4k one down to higher input lag on scaling and poor 4k UI / game support :|

I 4k downscale to 1080p @ 120hz. Of course it works great on 43". 4k below 30" is not for me. 96-110 PPI is the sweet spot.

Looking back I think a 40" might have been a better size for 4k. 1:1 scaling is important to me.
lvlark Feb 25, 2016
Very good comment, I will see what I can do. I also think the distro-hopping question really isn't needed at all for a gaming focused survey.

Things like distro, DE, which CPU etc, could maybe go on rotation? I think it's quite useful to see that a healthy chunk of people do gaming using, for instance, Fedora, when you're considering to try another distro. Similar for DE's, this survey can be a nice place to pick candidates.

Other than that, some more gaming-focussed questions could be useful, like which genre people are interested in, what kind of features they like/miss.


Last edited by lvlark on 25 February 2016 at 9:49 pm UTC
Purple Library Guy Feb 26, 2016
I'm sure this has come up before, but I find it interesting what a huge gulf there is between the proportion of AMD users running an open source driver (more than half!) vs. the proportion of Nvidia users running an open source driver (Like 2%!)

It's always been pretty clear that on one hand, the AMD proprietary drivers suck and its open source drivers are fairly decent, and on the other hand, the Nvidia proprietary drivers are fairly decent while (largely because Nvidia are unco-operative bastards) its open source drivers suck. But I hadn't realized the contrast was quite this dramatic.
fabertawe Feb 26, 2016
Perhaps the "Steam Machine" section could have an option regarding the Steam Link? I just got one and it's fantastic. Not just for games but also streaming Netflix/Amazon Prime/movies/desktop etc.

So I've gone from being on the fence regarding a Steam Machine to definitely not getting/building one (at the moment anyway) as the Link fulfills my needs.
cprn Feb 27, 2016
Seriously... Where's that survey? How do I fill it?
gnaag Feb 28, 2016
It would be great to add questions about gamepads. I am really interested in some data about steam controllers.

- If people use gamepads on linux
- What kind of gamepad do they use (steam controller, x360, dualshock, other...)


Last edited by gnaag on 28 February 2016 at 12:10 pm UTC
Liam Dawe Feb 29, 2016
Seriously... Where's that survey? How do I fill it?
We do a front page article dedicated to telling people when it's open every month, it also has a box when it's open linking to it above the news every month when it's open just like we have the link to the results post right now.
ZekThePenguin Mar 3, 2016
It would be great to add questions about gamepads. I am really interested in some data about steam controllers.

- If people use gamepads on linux
- What kind of gamepad do they use (steam controller, x360, dualshock, other...)

Fantastic idea! I did use a Logitech controller, but it wasn't very durable. Gotta admit, the X360 controller is still the best controller to be had on Linux right now. I would love to say the Steam controller is, but getting it to work on Mint seems to require some sort of voodoo that I don't possess.
ljrk Mar 6, 2016
Possibly one could add "special" questions like "Did you buy game x?" if x was released on that day and featured here. Possibly even: "If yes, did you notice or buy it because it was featured here?"
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