As mentioned in my last article talking about the Steam Hardware Survey, Valve sometimes adjusts the numbers a few days later. They have again and this time they adjusted the Linux market share on Steam down, not up.
Originally, the December market share for Linux on Steam was shown as 0.43%, but Valve have revised this down to 0.26%. So that's a decrease of 0.01 percentage points from November to December.
I'll be honest, I was rather surprised to see that the Linux market share on Steam had suddenly shot back up a bit, considering the Windows-only game, PLAYERUNKNOWN'S BATTLEGROUNDS is still pulling in a ton of people from the Asian market and is still breaking player records. In hindsight, it didn't really make sense for the Linux share to have risen like that. I still maintain my position that it most definitely will go back up, but that will be once the hype around PUBG fades.
Still, it's strange, as this is the biggest amount Valve has ever revised the survey numbers since I've been covering them. Well, as big as the percentages we're talking about are anyway…
So basically, nothing really changed between November and December. Here's to a strong and stable 2018.
Thanks for the news tip facePlanted.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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A downward trend driven by China is still a downward trend. Yet another reason to improve input method integration in Linux desktops.
Buggy word processing in your native language is a non-starter for any computer system, even one distributed at no cost.
Buggy word processing in your native language is a non-starter for any computer system, even one distributed at no cost.
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ElectricPrism Jan 8, 2018
Can someone please release a stat program on github that records stats once a month and we will make it a dependency of all steam installs.
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no_information_here Jan 8, 2018
I don't think this Steam survey is particularly news worthy.Yeah. I know it generates a lot of hype in the twitterverse, but the thing is completely useless considering it has unknown statistical accuracy.
Until it starts showing above 5% (or Valve releases its methodology) I think we can safely ignore the whole thing.
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no_information_here Jan 8, 2018
Can someone please release a stat program on github that records stats once a month and we will make it a dependency of all steam installs.I like that idea.
Not everyone may like it, but it would be a lot more transparent than what we have now.
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TheRiddick Jan 8, 2018
China is about to ban PUBG via VPN etc... so those huge numbers will take a significant dive when that happens, also people might see a decrease in hackers ;)
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A downward trend driven by China is still a downward trend. Yet another reason to improve input method integration in Linux desktops.
Buggy word processing in your native language is a non-starter for any computer system, even one distributed at no cost.
Let's be honest about something, Windows is also native-language only on the surface, when you start messing around with settings and registry everything is in English and that is the same for majority of operating systems, there's just no way any OS can rewrite everything from scratch in all the languages.
I find Linux to be completely compatible with my native language, not sure about Chinese.
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Can someone please release a stat program on github that records stats once a month and we will make it a dependency of all steam installs.Even if you had the power to somehow "make it a dependency of all Steam installs", I don't think another bit of (involuntary) telemetry is the answer. You'd just give more ammo to the privacy conscious Linux users who detest Steam. And make reluctant users like me just a bit more reluctant. Valve already has all the data they need (or want).
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I don't think this Steam survey is particularly news worthy.Yeah. I know it generates a lot of hype in the twitterverse, but the thing is completely useless considering it has unknown statistical accuracy.
Until it starts showing above 5% (or Valve releases its methodology) I think we can safely ignore the whole thing.
Isn't the methodology the survey that we participate at random times? I think it just checks then the OS Steam is running on and that's it.
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ElectricPrism Jan 8, 2018
Can someone please release a stat program on github that records stats once a month and we will make it a dependency of all steam installs.Even if you had the power to somehow "make it a dependency of all Steam installs", I don't think another bit of (involuntary) telemetry is the answer. You'd just give more ammo to the privacy conscious Linux users who detest Steam. And make reluctant users like me just a bit more reluctant. Valve already has all the data they need (or want).
No problem, make it a second package called [steam-stats] and on first steamrun record "opt-in's" and "opt-outs". Opt-Ins will send hardware information, opt outs will simply send some sort of hardware signature and a single "+1" so either way WIN/WIN.
Get the package in Arch, Manjaro and Ubuntu and everyone else will follow suit.
I mean -- honestly, we all know Steam is DRM on some level but all of us who use it don't give a shit. Or if we do give a shit just buy the games that we can get non DRM elsewhere like Gog.
Those annoying bitchers will bitch about anything -- let them bitch and whine in their dark corner of the web and just ignore.
The benefits to Steam Linux Gaming make it important enough that it would be stupid to not persue.
Last edited by ElectricPrism on 8 January 2018 at 7:49 am UTC
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Related yet offtopic: Are there stats for the operating system distribution on GamingOnLinux.com?
I'd just be curious how many other people read the blog despite not actually gaming on Linux. (In my case out of a mixture of interest in the technical aspects of Linux support, and in how the Linux-requirement seems to emphasize interesting/well-made indie games.)
Though I usually read the blog on iOS/Android.
I'd just be curious how many other people read the blog despite not actually gaming on Linux. (In my case out of a mixture of interest in the technical aspects of Linux support, and in how the Linux-requirement seems to emphasize interesting/well-made indie games.)
Though I usually read the blog on iOS/Android.
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All WINE users, dual booters and VM users are counted as Windows users. So whats matter?
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Isn't the methodology the survey that we participate at random times? I think it just checks then the OS Steam is running on and that's it.According to the last survey timestamps I've had a survey a few times, but I don't even know how it looks like. Although I vaguely remember something during the winex/cedega period.
https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/7ail87/howto_get_access_to_the_steam_hardware_survey/
My surveydate on my steam machine was 2017-07-05, which of course is a lie...
Last edited by Ardje on 8 January 2018 at 9:20 am UTC
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All WINE users, dual booters and VM users are counted as Windows users. So whats matter?Yeah, absolutely. I took part in the survey at least 5 times in the last 2-3 years. Each time, I just happened to be on Windows (once via Wine)...
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lucifertdark Jan 8, 2018
Yeah, absolutely. I took part in the survey at least 5 times in the last 2-3 years. Each time, I just happened to be on Windows (once via Wine)...Then stop doing it, only do the survey when it pops up on Linux.
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[email protected] Jan 8, 2018
Thank God, Fortnite isn't on Steam also. Or you will see us at 0.15%.
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In my opinion the steam survey is a highly unreliable way to count Linux marketshare (as a whole).
Firstly, it can only count those who have steam accounts. Not all Linux users have steam.
Secondly its numbers are way out of sync with everywhere else... 0.2%? Almost all other places rate us at 1-2% range.
In addition the data is incomplete, 0.2% okay, but 0.2% of how many survayed?
You could come to the conclusion that perhaps many Linux users are not using steam for verious reasons, No games of interest? Don't like DRM? Simply don't play games?
Lets not also forget there are a huge chunk of Linux users who'd rather game on a console, and work on their tux. Thereby again, not using steam.
Basically all I'm saying is you cannot draw a conclusion on Linuxes marketshare with Steam data alone.
Last edited by BlackBloodRum on 8 January 2018 at 10:42 am UTC
Firstly, it can only count those who have steam accounts. Not all Linux users have steam.
Secondly its numbers are way out of sync with everywhere else... 0.2%? Almost all other places rate us at 1-2% range.
In addition the data is incomplete, 0.2% okay, but 0.2% of how many survayed?
You could come to the conclusion that perhaps many Linux users are not using steam for verious reasons, No games of interest? Don't like DRM? Simply don't play games?
Lets not also forget there are a huge chunk of Linux users who'd rather game on a console, and work on their tux. Thereby again, not using steam.
Basically all I'm saying is you cannot draw a conclusion on Linuxes marketshare with Steam data alone.
Last edited by BlackBloodRum on 8 January 2018 at 10:42 am UTC
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In my opinion the steam survey is a highly unreliable way to count Linux marketshare (as a whole).
It doesn't count overall Linux market share, nor is it intended to do so. It counts STEAM USERS ON LINUX and nothing else. Important distinction which a lot of people seem to miss.
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Game developers thinking about making a Linux port or not might argue that a port would extend the user base of their game by 0.x% only, which is false.
Instead, they need (and should be able to see) stats which shows user percentage on a set of games that actually have useable Linux ports. That would show the real numbers a Linux port can expect. Remember articles where game developers reported Linux user percentage like 3-5% or even more.
Instead, they need (and should be able to see) stats which shows user percentage on a set of games that actually have useable Linux ports. That would show the real numbers a Linux port can expect. Remember articles where game developers reported Linux user percentage like 3-5% or even more.
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The survey is pointless anyway since Valve does not mention the sample size.
Actually... If you have multiple incomplete studies, you can correlate them against each other and infer the estimated number of unknown cases. Something like this https://granta.com/violence-in-blue/
I think it should be possible to at least find the order of the sample size of the steam survey via other statistics. But it's definitely something for a statistician better than me.
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