Another month goes by and Valve have released their Steam Hardware Survey. It shows a drop in Linux marketshare, but it's not as bad as people claim.
I actually stopped talking about this for a while until recently as not much changes. When I see people linking to articles with a title like this:
"Steam Linux Usage Saw A Notable Decline For June 2017"
I can't help but attempt to clear it up.
To be clear, there is no feud between GOL and Phoronix, but I do take issue with, to be blunt, clickbait headlines like that. A large amount of his reporting is generally quite accurate. However, headlines like that and the text of the article too saying it's a "relatively large decline" just aren't right.
Linux marketshare on Steam dropped by 0.09% for last month. That is not a notable decline, it's so low it could be within the margin of error. We don't know what their sample size is though, so the error margin is not clear. It might look like more than it is because our overall share is obviously a lot lower than where Windows is currently. This could also be from variations in the sampling each month.
The main thing: We're talking sub-1% changes here. If there was a notable decrease in Linux gamers on Steam, the decrease in the overall percentage would be a lot sharper.
It can be a simple case of Windows growth in certain markets outpacing Linux growth. That doesn't suddenly mean Linux has any kind of notable decline in use. Linux is likely growing too, just not as fast.
You can claim the Linux survey doesn't come up often enough, but that's just how sampling works.
You can argue booting into your Windows dual-boot partition suddenly makes it appear and claim it's wrong. Of course it would pop up then though, that's it seeing a change in your system. So you are likely to see a survey.
The numbers in the Valve survey are very close to what I constantly see from developers when talking in public (and more often in private) about their sales numbers.
We're strong enough for hundreds of indie titles each month, Feral Interactive, Aspyr Media & Virtual Programming all still port some of the bigger titles to Linux. It's going well all things considered.
Everything's fine. Keep calm and carry on, basically. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
I actually stopped talking about this for a while until recently as not much changes. When I see people linking to articles with a title like this:
"Steam Linux Usage Saw A Notable Decline For June 2017"
I can't help but attempt to clear it up.
To be clear, there is no feud between GOL and Phoronix, but I do take issue with, to be blunt, clickbait headlines like that. A large amount of his reporting is generally quite accurate. However, headlines like that and the text of the article too saying it's a "relatively large decline" just aren't right.
Linux marketshare on Steam dropped by 0.09% for last month. That is not a notable decline, it's so low it could be within the margin of error. We don't know what their sample size is though, so the error margin is not clear. It might look like more than it is because our overall share is obviously a lot lower than where Windows is currently. This could also be from variations in the sampling each month.
The main thing: We're talking sub-1% changes here. If there was a notable decrease in Linux gamers on Steam, the decrease in the overall percentage would be a lot sharper.
It can be a simple case of Windows growth in certain markets outpacing Linux growth. That doesn't suddenly mean Linux has any kind of notable decline in use. Linux is likely growing too, just not as fast.
You can claim the Linux survey doesn't come up often enough, but that's just how sampling works.
You can argue booting into your Windows dual-boot partition suddenly makes it appear and claim it's wrong. Of course it would pop up then though, that's it seeing a change in your system. So you are likely to see a survey.
The numbers in the Valve survey are very close to what I constantly see from developers when talking in public (and more often in private) about their sales numbers.
We're strong enough for hundreds of indie titles each month, Feral Interactive, Aspyr Media & Virtual Programming all still port some of the bigger titles to Linux. It's going well all things considered.
Everything's fine. Keep calm and carry on, basically. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
The comments on this article are closed.
Quoting: KetilI don't believe anyone think steam usage is representative for linux usage as a whole on desktop, but I think it is fairly accurate for linux gaming with nonfree games.
I don't think it's accurate for Linux gaming market, it's actually quite misleading.
Last edited by Shmerl on 3 July 2017 at 5:34 pm UTC
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elbuglione Jul 3, 2017
5 Millions Active Linux Gamers... is ok for me.
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Quoting: ShmerlQuoting: PompesdeskyAs to the DRM thing, I had DRMs in Steam when I used it within Windows, I don't see why I would complain now that I switched to Linux. Going for an open source OS doesn't mean everything has to become open source,
Some people ditch Windows because they are fed up with DRM. Same people usually don't use Steam ;) You can see a lot of such folks among GOG users.
If GoG released their Galaxy client for Linux, I'd likely buy there first, every time. Until then though, I can't be bothered with a) their inconsistent release policy, b) constantly having to patch my own games, c) the lack of a "steam cloud" (although not all games support steam's version, sadly), and d) the lack of any kind of friends browser for finding a multi-player game that isn't full of holes. As in "ass".
Once GoG sort that out, they'll have a pretty devoted customer here. Until then, I'd rather find my DRM on Humble.
Last edited by scaine on 3 July 2017 at 7:51 pm UTC
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pentarctagon Jul 3, 2017
Quoting: liamdaweQuoting: pentarctagonSo... what even are people are using? The three ones specifically named are Ubuntu(16.04.2, 17.04) and Mint 18.1 - all 64-bit. Then there's "Linux 64-bit". All of these come out to 0.47 out of 0.72, and in the previous month it was 0.49 out of 0.81. Are there really that many Steam linux users still on 32-bit OSes?You can get a good idea of what people use here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/users/statistics
Which, if anything, actually reinforces my question rather than answers it. According to those stats you linked, only 0.05% of users are on 32-bit distros. But assuming the Steam stats are correct, and that I'm correct in assuming that "Linux 64-bit" is a catch-all for any/all other 64-bit distros, 34.7% of users are on a 32-bit distros.
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Quoting: pentarctagonFrom what I remember "Linux 64-bit" is for distributions, that for some reason don't name themselves or something. That's not to say everyone else is on 32bit, I have extreme doubts the rest is made up by 32bit on Steam.Quoting: liamdaweQuoting: pentarctagonSo... what even are people are using? The three ones specifically named are Ubuntu(16.04.2, 17.04) and Mint 18.1 - all 64-bit. Then there's "Linux 64-bit". All of these come out to 0.47 out of 0.72, and in the previous month it was 0.49 out of 0.81. Are there really that many Steam linux users still on 32-bit OSes?You can get a good idea of what people use here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/users/statistics
Which, if anything, actually reinforces my question rather than answers it. According to those stats you linked, only 0.05% of users are on 32-bit distros. But assuming the Steam stats are correct, and that I'm correct in assuming that "Linux 64-bit" is a catch-all for any/all other 64-bit distros, 34.7% of users are on a 32-bit distros.
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ertuqueque Jul 4, 2017
Quoting: BeamboomQuoting: ertuquequenot to mention the absolutely unjustified "Capitalization Of Every Word In His News Titles".
That's how they format headlines in the US. It's common practise.
I know it is a common practice in the US, but that's a really bad habit! (and I'm very glad you guys in the UK and other places don't do that)... It's not that uncommon to stop for a few seconds trying to understand a title that says something like: "People Claim That An Apple Is Better Than Other Brands"... It would be much easier to immediately understand it if it just said: "People claim that an Apple is better than other brands"... That way you know they're referring to the Apple brand and not just an apple fruit... This not-that-uncommon problem defies the very purpose of a title, which is to give a quick look at the content of the article. I'm not a native English speaker by any means (Latin America here), the English I've learned is basically self taught, and from time to time I find myself having better grammar than native English speakers. (The same thing happens -probably more- with Spanish articles/posts). But it's frustrating to see that in what are more or less "high profile" web sites. Not to mention that when I've pointed grammar mistakes or bad habits on these sites, responses are "dismissive" in the best of cases.
Just in case, I find the grammar in this site to be VERY, VERY good, and the "For spelling, grammar and other corrections click here" button is absolutely well thought and a professional way of addressing those problems.
Last edited by ertuqueque on 4 July 2017 at 5:08 am UTC
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Pompesdesky Jul 6, 2017
Quoting: ShmerlSome people ditch Windows because they are fed up with DRM. Same people usually don't use Steam ;) You can see a lot of such folks among GOG users.
Might be the case for some, but what I see around me is people ditching Windows because of Microsofts policy with regards to privacy and their general practices since introducing W10 (my case btw).
Regarding GOG I have the same view as Scaine above, until they have their client set up for Linux I won't buy again from them. I bought Oddworld New'n Tasty from them and it's unplayable, cannot setup the controler, there are issues in the menus and it was a pain to install for a Linux newbie like me. I didn't buy it again from Steam to check but I'm quite sure the user experience there is far better :(
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Quoting: PompesdeskyQuoting: ShmerlSome people ditch Windows because they are fed up with DRM. Same people usually don't use Steam ;) You can see a lot of such folks among GOG users.
Might be the case for some, but what I see around me is people ditching Windows because of Microsofts policy with regards to privacy and their general practices since introducing W10 (my case btw).
Same here.
Don't think Windows is necesarilly a bad OS , nor am I a Linux zealot , but their attitude to privacy and their implementation of 10 pushed me over the edge.
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