You know the drill by now, it's up and down all the time and I don't think we should really pay much attention to the Steam Hardware Survey any more, regardless of it going up or down. A better measure is likely to keep talking to developers, and see how their actual sales are doing on Linux.
Anyway, for those who are still interested:
Linux Total: 0.89% - 0.04%
Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS 64 bit 0.33% - 0.01%
Linux 64 bit 0.10% 0.00%
Linux Mint 18 Sarah 64 bit 0.09% + 0.01%
Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS 64 bit 0.05% - 0.01%
Even though Valve aren't currently counting anyone in Big Picture or SteamOS, I doubt it would change anything much. Our own survey suggests SteamOS use is pretty low (26 out of 1645 who answered it).
These results may change tomorrow or the day after, as it seems Valve sometimes adjust them a day or so after they put out the results, like we saw last month, and that's not the only time they have done that.
Make of it what you will. I'm not going to put the blame anywhere, as no one really knows apart from Valve, and apparently I'm always wrong according to a few people who think they know better.
What I will say, is don't get disheartened by figures like this, we can mostly ignore it until the change is much bigger. That goes for when it rises too. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Anyway, for those who are still interested:
Linux Total: 0.89% - 0.04%
Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS 64 bit 0.33% - 0.01%
Linux 64 bit 0.10% 0.00%
Linux Mint 18 Sarah 64 bit 0.09% + 0.01%
Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS 64 bit 0.05% - 0.01%
Even though Valve aren't currently counting anyone in Big Picture or SteamOS, I doubt it would change anything much. Our own survey suggests SteamOS use is pretty low (26 out of 1645 who answered it).
These results may change tomorrow or the day after, as it seems Valve sometimes adjust them a day or so after they put out the results, like we saw last month, and that's not the only time they have done that.
Make of it what you will. I'm not going to put the blame anywhere, as no one really knows apart from Valve, and apparently I'm always wrong according to a few people who think they know better.
What I will say, is don't get disheartened by figures like this, we can mostly ignore it until the change is much bigger. That goes for when it rises too. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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We are talking about 0.04%. To put this into perspective: if say one million surveys were issued last month this makes a difference of 400 less for Linux.
Discussing such miniscule fluctuations is a waste of time (you are basically saying the same thing) but "Linux marketshare falls" in such a context sounds like clickbaiting.
Discussing such miniscule fluctuations is a waste of time (you are basically saying the same thing) but "Linux marketshare falls" in such a context sounds like clickbaiting.
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One of my pet peeves about mainstream media is that they like to report on the results of polls as if ones that show changes that are within the margin of error have any significance at all. This article seems to guesstimate that it's 0.065 percentage points for the Steam hardware survey: http://cheesetalks.net/steamsurvey.php
If his assumptions are correct a change of 0.04% is completely meaningless like you're suggesting but his conclusion would seem to suggest that surprisingly small changes will be worth talking about.
If his assumptions are correct a change of 0.04% is completely meaningless like you're suggesting but his conclusion would seem to suggest that surprisingly small changes will be worth talking about.
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The hardware survey is probably a little iffy. Because Linux users tend to keep their PCs running (and steam too) so they never get presented with a survey.
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lucifertdark Nov 2, 2016
Send it to ALL Steam users at once & then we'll have an accurate number instead of this up & down nonsense every month, what percentage of the total users actually get the survey?
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OLucasZanella Nov 2, 2016
Didn't get it.
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[email protected] Nov 2, 2016
I have never gotten the survey on Linux, ever! And I'm sure many are in the same boat.
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We are talking about 0.04%. To put this into perspective: if say one million surveys were issued last month this makes a difference of 400 less for Linux.It is a small drop in the ocean yes, as specifically stated in the article:
Discussing such miniscule fluctuations is a waste of time (you are basically saying the same thing) but "Linux marketshare falls" in such a context sounds like clickbaiting.
(...)we can mostly ignore it until the change is much bigger. That goes for when it rises too.I am only providing this for people that care about it.
There's no clickbait here, we don't rely on advert clicks or any of that rubbish for our content.
If the results are properly correct, and Linux did drop by that 0.04%, the title is still factually correct. I said it fell, I didn't say anything further.
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I got a survey this time. After 6 months or something.
Last edited by burnall on 2 November 2016 at 12:32 pm UTC
Last edited by burnall on 2 November 2016 at 12:32 pm UTC
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Mountain Man Nov 2, 2016
I trust the Steam hardware survey about as much as I trust political polls. I wish Valve would just release the actual numbers so we can put an end to all of this guesswork and speculation.
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Statistics don't matter, as long as we have Ferap & similar guys we have nothing to worry about :P
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Mohandevir Nov 2, 2016
I don't know if a typical console user who buys a Steam Machine knows about GamingonLinux. The usual reader is really desktop oriented here and, thus, not really prone to use SteamOS. Anyway it's not like if Steam Machines have taken over the console world either... It's just that the survey here might underrate the real SteamOS adoption because we are not the "targeted audience".
Totally speculative, but if 1 out of 5 Steam controllers is sold with a Steam Machine it's still 100 000 Steam Machines (as per original Valve 500 000 sold Steam Controllers info). 100 000 Steam Machines for ±1million Linux users it's still .1%.
I might over calculate Steam Machines impact though...
Totally speculative, but if 1 out of 5 Steam controllers is sold with a Steam Machine it's still 100 000 Steam Machines (as per original Valve 500 000 sold Steam Controllers info). 100 000 Steam Machines for ±1million Linux users it's still .1%.
I might over calculate Steam Machines impact though...
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I trust the Steam hardware survey about as much as I trust political polls.
Me too. These polls are quite good as well.
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PublicNuisance Nov 2, 2016
I'd be interested to know the total number of Linux respondants rather than the percentage. If there was a bigger influx of Mac and Windows gamers than Linux gamers than our percentage would fall. As long as the number of Linux gamers keeps rising then I don't care about a percentage. In a way it could still be a good thing. More PC gamers overall are more potential future Linux gamers.
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I'd be interested to know the total number of Linux respondants rather than the percentage. If there was a bigger influx of Mac and Windows gamers than Linux gamers than our percentage would fall. As long as the number of Linux gamers keeps rising then I don't care about a percentage. In a way it could still be a good thing. More PC gamers overall are more potential future Linux gamers.
From time to time, Valve is giving out numbers of their active user base, and, as you are expecting, it is hugely growing. So, Linux user base is growing at the same rate.
Last edited by Eike on 2 November 2016 at 2:37 pm UTC
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While talking about stats, according to Net Applications, the market share of Linux on Desktop remains above 2% for 5 months now
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While talking about stats, according to Net Applications, the market share of Linux on Desktop remains above 2% for 5 months now
Speaking about that, we must take into account that total number of PCs in the world is probably rising more than it ever has, every person in the family in the western world probably owns their own PC at least a laptop and if we take into account that number of Windows PC is increasing, number of Linux PCs has been increasing at the higher rate since we've gained some marketshare (more than ever actually, now we are actually at about stable 2% which is not a small number, considering that there are 3+ billions of working PCs out there...)
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Our own survey suggests SteamOS use is pretty low (26 out of 1645 who answered it).
I use SteamOS on a custom-built Steam Machine. However, I play more often on my desktop machine. So, my survey response here is about my desktop machine. You probably didn't mean that sentence to be read that way, but I just wanted to make sure it was clear that respondents may have multiple machines that are not accounted.
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Well, it's hard to say exactly how accurate this is, considering that some people may have received the hardware survey within Wine or Windows in a dual-boot situation. Even if they reject the survey from the Windows client, that means they won't get another chance for the month and won't be counted.
Last edited by Aimela on 2 November 2016 at 3:25 pm UTC
Last edited by Aimela on 2 November 2016 at 3:25 pm UTC
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Well, it's hard to say exactly how accurate this is, considering that some people may have received the hardware survey within Wine or Windows in a dual-boot situation.
I fail to see how this can tamper the purity of the survey. If they get their survey on Windows, then they are Windows users. Even WINE is Windows for all intents and purposes as it increases Windows-only games' audience and thus further discourages developers from working on Linux versions of their games.
Let's just face it: there are no points of growth for Linux at this stage. Ask yourself: "If I'm a gamer and want to play all of the hot best-sellers of the season, what OS should I use?" The answer is evident. :P
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This month we are showing good market share of 2.72% on W3Counter:
https://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php
Our market share on Netmarketshare remains good at 2.18%:
https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=9&qpcustomb=0
It can no longer be dismissed as noise, one thing that is sure, is that Linux market share has risen in 2016!
https://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php
Our market share on Netmarketshare remains good at 2.18%:
https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=9&qpcustomb=0
It can no longer be dismissed as noise, one thing that is sure, is that Linux market share has risen in 2016!
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