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Our user survey is now done automatically from your profiles every month. On the 1st of December a fresh lot was generated.

Reminder: Update your profile.

Our newest question about your primary gamepads/controllers has grown quite a bit over last month, with 231 more people answering the question compared to last month. With 502 total people answering that question now, the Steam Controller has the top share at 36% which is quite impressive.

Ubuntu and its spin-offs still remain king over all other distributions too, with them together taking a sweet 50.29%.

This is the most fun to see:
image
Out of 1263 people, only 2 are on 32bit.

Note: I noticed the graph numbers are getting cramped at higher levels of people, so I will be adjusting that to shorten it to "1k, 1.2K" or something like that.

It's also nice to see a healthy 68.24% of people do not dual-boot, which surprised me, but that's a damn healthy number to see.

You can view the full Linux gamer statistics at any time here.

If you have any feature suggestions, do let me know and I can add them to the list. I am focusing on a few other things before I get back to adjusting it some more.

I am still working out the best length of time to have data drop-off when it becomes stale. We do log the time and date people last updated their information, so it's easy to do when I think of a good time period for it.

I will also be working on an automatic reminder, that will appear on the site to ask you to update your details or to click if nothing has changed. That way, it will help with old data and keep it in your minds. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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About the author -
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly checked on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. You can also follow my personal adventures on Bluesky.
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51 comments
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toor Dec 4, 2016
Great :)
redshift Dec 4, 2016
Will anonymous survey be making a comeback? I'm not even sure if it should since it might be manipulated easier.

I really think you should keep doing your normal surveys if you actually care about the results.
It's an interesting argument. I also think it would better if survey was manual like before, but with my previous answers already written-in for the new survey. Wasn't it the whole idea at the beginning?


Last edited by redshift on 4 December 2016 at 7:28 pm UTC
redshift Dec 4, 2016
Edit: I prefer the automatic survey as it is now. I was getting tired of the monthly manual surveys.
Then there needs to be some safeguards against "zombie" accounts. Or against people not updating their profiles. Like asking every 6 months to resubmit data for survey or it won't be counted. I'm not saying Liam should implement those measures right away, but I feel they would make survey more reliable.

Monthly surveys were tiring for me only because I needed to enter same answers. But having people actually taking time to answer was a good feature.
iskaputt Dec 4, 2016
I don't understand how there are still so many 32-bit only games coming out, when it's been years that the distribution looked like this. There were a *bunch* of (newish) games during the GOG fall sale I wanted to buy, but in the end didn't, due to being 32-bit only...

People have a fair point about stale profiles. But difficult to tell the actual impact.

PS: Please add Void Linux distribution :D
redshift Dec 4, 2016
Aside from not using the whole power of 64-bit system, what's the problem with 32-bit games?
Shmerl Dec 4, 2016
Unity and some other engine editors might still export 32-bit by default (which is dumb these days). And also, there can be some third party plugins which are poorly supported and come with 32-bit only. Something like that happened to Tyranny for example. The worst thing is, when that 32-bit release is bugged on big XFS partitions, or some other 32-bit related malady affects it.

Aside from not using the whole power of 64-bit system, what's the problem with 32-bit games?

Problem is, some developers don't know how to avoid problems with 32-bit releases on 64-bits. And besides, their target audience is not using 32-bit, so why do they insist on annoying their users with this?


Last edited by Shmerl on 4 December 2016 at 8:14 pm UTC
Shmerl Dec 4, 2016
By the way, amount of VRAM can added to the PC profile info. It's not a commonly surveyed parameter.


Last edited by Shmerl on 4 December 2016 at 8:16 pm UTC
JOndra91 Dec 4, 2016
It's also nice to see a healthy 68.24% of people do not dual-boot, which surprised me, but that's a damn healthy number to see.

Well, the dual-boot statistic doesn't really give you much useful informations. The reason is that you know nothing about it's usage. Of course, high percentage is good but it doesn't necessarily mean that lower percentage is bad.

In my case, I do have Windows installed next to Linux but I haven't used it for a few months now. I had to pay for it when I bought my laptop anyway and it's good to have it just in case (and for Fallout). So I guess there might be others in similar situation.
MayeulC Dec 4, 2016
An interesting statistics:

Nvidia: 943 (75.2%) Difference: (-0.81% overall, +56 people)
AMD: 237 (18.9%) Difference: (+0.65% overall, +24 people)
Intel: 74 (5.9%) Difference: (+0.16% overall, +7 people)
At this level, it could be some statistical error, but it's a good time to change GPUs (probably Q12017 too), so let's see how it pans out.

Aside from not using the whole power of 64-bit system, what's the problem with 32-bit games?

I am just dreaming of the day I can remove the multilib support from my system. I feel dirty just having it. Purity first! :D
The steam client is 32bits itself, though, so that's not of a great help. At least, 64bit games' dependencies are easier to track down.

There is nothing wrong with supplying both either, with a script to select the right one, like a lot of games do.


Last edited by MayeulC on 4 December 2016 at 8:32 pm UTC
iskaputt Dec 4, 2016
Aside from not using the whole power of 64-bit system, what's the problem with 32-bit games?

I don't see why I should support 32-bit releases. For at least ten years now, there is more or less not a single x86 CPU sold that doesn't support 64-bit. There is absolutely no reason to be running a 32-bit system, let alone 32-bit Linux.

The one big problem that @Shmerl mentioned is shitty middleware. But you know what? Don't use shitty middleware today. The Tyranny situation is a big fat joke.
Shmerl Dec 4, 2016
Well, the dual-boot statistic doesn't really give you much useful informations. The reason is that you know nothing about it's usage. Of course, high percentage is good but it doesn't necessarily mean that lower percentage is bad.

In my case, I do have Windows installed next to Linux but I haven't used it for a few months now. I had to pay for it when I bought my laptop anyway and it's good to have it just in case (and for Fallout). So I guess there might be others in similar situation.

May be the question can be more precise. I.e. do you use dual boot for gaming? The point is to figure out what percentage support Linux gaming market by not using Windows (and not giving an excuse to those who don't release games for Linux).


Last edited by Shmerl on 4 December 2016 at 9:07 pm UTC
kazriko Dec 4, 2016
The note in this did get me to update my PC info. I had switched from KDE to Cinnamon and Proprietary graphics drivers to open source since I last updated my stats.
Liam Dawe Dec 4, 2016
Our user survey is now done automatically from your profiles every month. On the 1st of December a fresh lot was generated.

This isn't a good idea. A survey forces new data out of users. Polling profile info is going to gather a lot of outdated, stagnant data from people who don't keep their profiles current or don't frequently visit the site. It doesn't matter how much you remind people to update.. there will be plenty who won't and it's going to affect the results.

I really think you should keep doing your normal surveys if you actually care about the results.
Obviously, this is why data from people who haven't updated their profiles in a while won't be included.
Shmerl Dec 4, 2016
Obviously, this is why data from people who haven't updated their profiles in a while won't be included.

You can include it if before making the survey you would ask people to validate the current data (one click action), or update the profile.


Last edited by Shmerl on 4 December 2016 at 10:10 pm UTC
Gryxx Dec 4, 2016
liamdawe, Shmerl
Can't we get both? Monthly survey(games bought, bundles etc) with user statistics(with quick overview and edit button to ensure being actual data)?
Philadelphus Dec 4, 2016
Obviously, this is why data from people who haven't updated their profiles in a while won't be included.
How long are we talking here and is there some kind of way to tell it "no, I haven't updated my profile because nothing has changed"? Not everyone changes something every few months; some of us like to find a set-up that works and leave it alone.


Last edited by Philadelphus on 5 December 2016 at 3:46 am UTC
Gryxx Dec 4, 2016
Aside from not using the whole power of 64-bit system, what's the problem with 32-bit games?

I don't see why I should support 32-bit releases. For at least ten years now, there is more or less not a single x86 CPU sold that doesn't support 64-bit. There is absolutely no reason to be running a 32-bit system, let alone 32-bit Linux.

The one big problem that @Shmerl mentioned is shitty middleware. But you know what? Don't use shitty middleware today. The Tyranny situation is a big fat joke.

As we focus gaming you are absolutely right. But i know people running 12 years old hardware just cause its still good enough for them.
Liam Dawe Dec 4, 2016
Obviously, this is why data from people who haven't updated their profiles in a while won't be included.
How long are we talking here and is there some kind of way to tell it "no, I haven't update my profile because nothing has changed"? Not everyone changes something every few months; some of us like to find a set-up that works and leave it alone.
Time until drop-off to be worked out yet, it will be as easy as hitting update while changing nothing to just keep you in the system if nothing has changed :)

Also, remember guys, this isn't supposed to be some hard-hitting survey, this is for-fun to give an approximation. No matter how we do it, it's not going to be 100% accurate.

Edit: Spelling.


Last edited by Liam Dawe on 4 December 2016 at 10:11 pm UTC
Nel Dec 4, 2016
Obviously, this is why data from people who haven't updated their profiles in a while won't be included.
Any info?

The only info available is this:
This is currently in BETA. There are 5188 registered users on GamingOnLinux. These statistics are gathered using their manually entered data on their profiles. Please update your profile here to make this as accurate as possible.
How do I know if my account is updated? How much time will it keep counted as updated? I didn't change anything for many many months, do I need to hit the "Update" button or just keep login here from time to time is enough?

Make things clearer as possible. Publish sources as AGPL.
Liam Dawe Dec 4, 2016
Obviously, this is why data from people who haven't updated their profiles in a while won't be included.
Any info?

The only info available is this:
This is currently in BETA. There are 5188 registered users on GamingOnLinux. These statistics are gathered using their manually entered data on their profiles. Please update your profile here to make this as accurate as possible.
How do I know if my account is updated? How much time will it keep counted as updated? I didn't change anything for many many months, do I need to hit the "Update" button or just keep login here from time to time is enough?

Make things clearer as possible. Publish sources as AGPL.
There is no info on that, as this has not been implemented yet. It's as simple as that.
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