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Update 04/10/16: Valve have adjusted their numbers, it seems the correct amount is now
Linux Total: 0.93% + 0.10%
Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS 64 bit 0.34% + 0.06%
Linux 64 bit 0.10% + 0.01%
Linux Mint 18 Sarah 64 bit 0.08% + 0.02%
Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS 64 bit 0.06% + 0.06%

Original article below:
Another month goes by and another Steam Hardware Survey was done, I got a pop up this month and it seems we have increased our share two months in a row on Steam.

Linux Total: 0.94% + 0.11%
Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS 64 bit 0.35% + 0.07%
Linux 64 bit 0.10% + 0.01%
Linux Mint 18 Sarah 64 bit 0.08% + 0.02%
Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS 64 bit 0.06% + 0.06%

Someone in the comments a while ago suggested that the free Windows 10 update was causing the figures to slide on the Linux side. I am starting to agree with this, as a change of OS and/or a change of hardware are two things that can actually trigger the survey. I have seen this myself multiple times when I hop from one thing to another. Once that stopped, we've seen two months in a row of growth, although last month was smaller in comparison we shouldn't expect this to carry on for long.

It seems our higher result was due to Windows losing -0.33%, Mac gained the rest at +0.25%. Windows 10 64 bit currently being the most popular OS in use on Steam.

This could all still change again next month, so it's nothing to truly go and celebrate over. Still small percentages being talked about and yes it could all be down to statistical errors which is my point about not running off celebrating just yet, before people complain I'm being too positive or not looking into it enough (people moaned at me for last time, happy to act on the feedback).

One thing was different this month, the survey specifically asked me if I was using the little dock for the Steam Controller Dongle. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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40 comments
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Naib Oct 2, 2016
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Well early reports is that Win10 is losing "market share" could be a statistical anomaly ... would need to wait till next month to really see if there is a hint of a trend
http://betanews.com/2016/10/01/wtf-windows-10-losing-share/

The steam survey sort of lines up with this as well

Windows 10 64 bit 47.48% +0.04%
Windows 10 1.42% -0.09%

thats a net loss of 0.05% tiny and maybe a one off
kalin Oct 2, 2016
win10 is crap. its normal to losing market share
Ehvis Oct 2, 2016
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I don't think the crap part will stop Win10 from growing. It didn't stop Windows as a whole.

A lot of interesting statistics also appear when you start filtering. Linux users appear to run the most powerful hardware on average. Pretty much half of the Mac users run on Intel integrated GPUs. That puts the Mac percentages in perspective and shows why Linux is interesting to Mac porters like Feral and Aspyr.
valgusk Oct 2, 2016
The reason is: I finally got a survey on my Linux :D


Last edited by valgusk on 2 October 2016 at 9:41 am UTC
MaCroX95 Oct 2, 2016
I've got the survey for the first time last month as well... and on the long-run I don't see windows 10 not being adopted in advance due to the Microsoft's huge investments in it's promotion, however what is important is that Linux community is slowly and steadily growing and that 48% of marketshare who still use Windows 7 did not choose to upgrade to Windows 10 which could mean a great increase of Linux marketshare (Mac a bit unlikely due to the overpriced nature of their products) by the years of 2020 (when official support for Windows 7 ends)... I mean if they did not upgrade for free why would they pay to upgrade later? I think that the fact that win7 is still mostly used version of windows indicates that Windows 10 will have hard time bringing their users to upgrade unless they change something, however it's unlikely I believe because it's just what Microsoft has become in last years.

On the other hand what we really should celebrate is our freedom and number of ports and also new releases brought to us by Feral and similar awesome companies! :D
slightlysinister69 Oct 2, 2016
I think the last Windows 10 update probably helped as it seems to have broken a lot of installations.
neowiz73 Oct 2, 2016
at least it does show the overall growth of mac and linux vs windows. although tiny numbers at least it's a positive. hope to see one day entire percentage points, even a 1 to 2% jump would be amazing.
Tchey Oct 2, 2016
First Steam survey in ages, a few days ago.
lucifertdark Oct 2, 2016
So 0.11% of the users who got the survey are using Linux, it's still not an accurate representation of the Linux user base, send it out to every Steam user at the same time & you'll see the truth.

I want it sent to everyone at the same time.
minj Oct 2, 2016
Steam survey is crap. Even if it weren't such marginal changes are meaningless. I've been arguing to stop reporting on it for a while now.
minteh Oct 2, 2016
I got the Mrs to move to Xubuntu from Windows 8 so there's plus 1 :D
MaCroX95 Oct 2, 2016
I got the Mrs to move to Xubuntu from Windows 8 so there's plus 1 :D

I moved my whole house to Linux, only mom insists that everything works on Win8 for her because all she needs is Chrome and few other Web sites :D She does like the look of Gnome 3 on my laptop so she will switch eventually as well :D Also installed mint to some neighbours around and so far no complaints :D I hope that they will spread the good word if they like the experience.
LinuxGamesTV Oct 2, 2016
On http://netmarketshare.com (Desktop Top Operating System Share Trend
) Linux have this month 2.23% Users and in November 2015 it was 1.62.


Last edited by LinuxGamesTV on 2 October 2016 at 11:37 am UTC
MayeulC Oct 2, 2016
Got the survey on Windows when I tried to retrieve my old DOW II save from the steam cloud (which worked, btw). Rebooted on Linux and didn't get it :/

Oh, and steam seemed to be broken on win 10 when I tried it. Would crash and not boot again; I was lucky to retrieve my save at all.
whatever Oct 2, 2016
Well early reports is that Win10 is losing "market share" could be a statistical anomaly ... would need to wait till next month to really see if there is a hint of a trend
http://betanews.com/2016/10/01/wtf-windows-10-losing-share/

The steam survey sort of lines up with this as well

Windows 10 64 bit 47.48% +0.04%
Windows 10 1.42% -0.09%

thats a net loss of 0.05% tiny and maybe a one off

Windows 10 is such a disaster (forced borked updates, forced spyware, ads, no QA ...) that I find this outcome quite unsurprising. I bet many grabbed the "upgrade" to W10 just because it was free, and then went back to W7 out of desperation. Because of DX12 gamers will have no choices tho...
nishazzar Oct 2, 2016
I got the survey two times within the last two months. Once on my laptop and once on my desktop. I think these were the first two surveys i ever got on Linux (i'm on the TUX side of the Force for about 3 years).

Now back to randomly changing HW and rebooting and hoping for my third survey... why? 3 surveys on linux = HL3 confirmed :P
Ehvis Oct 2, 2016
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HL3 will come when it's viable as a Linux/SteamOS only release ;-P We have a few surveys to go.
MaCroX95 Oct 2, 2016
I got the survey two times within the last two months. Once on my laptop and once on my desktop. I think these were the first two surveys i ever got on Linux (i'm on the TUX side of the Force for about 3 years).

Now back to randomly changing HW and rebooting and hoping for my third survey... why? 3 surveys on linux = HL3 confirmed :P

Valve releasing an awesome Linux exclusive would mean only 1 thing... thousands of gamers rushing to install Linux to play a game HL3 for example :D Such thing needs to be done so Windows users would lose their tight grip to 1 OS. But back to reality Valve would never do such thing because they are really the one company that cares about PC gaming and their users opposite to majority of game development companies out there.
Liam Dawe Oct 2, 2016
Steam survey is crap. Even if it weren't such marginal changes are meaningless. I've been arguing to stop reporting on it for a while now.
Crap how? It generally shows good trends. Not looking how we want it to doesn't make it crap.
Mohandevir Oct 2, 2016
In fact, this week I converted 2 hardcore Win10 gamers to Linux because they're fed up with Win10 breaking everything at every updates. The anniversary upgrade was a disaster for both of them. I dare hope that these are not isolated occurances. :)

Edit: Typo.


Last edited by Mohandevir on 2 October 2016 at 2:29 pm UTC
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