UPDATE: See here for the revised (higher) figures.
Valve have put up their usual monthly survey and the interesting thing for us is that the Linux share is the highest it's been for some time now.
We're currently tracking it every month on a dedicated page which gives you some historical data. As you can see, the current Linux market share on Steam is now at 0.71% as of September's figures. It hasn't been that high since July last year when it hit 0.74%. Although we're still chasing that elusive 1% mark.
With Valve introducing their new Steam Play system near the end of August, it certainly seems to have had an effect. Whether this continues or not is certainly going to be interesting to see, but it's still a pretty good sign. Still not exactly a high percentage when you compare it to Windows at 96.30% for September, but we do have to remember the seemingly ever-increasing user-count on Steam too which means we probably have a lot more users than some would think.
The biggest uncertainty will be people testing out Linux for Steam Play, if they do decide to become fully-fledged Linux users. I've honestly lost count of the amount of people across the net, that said they've officially dumped Windows or they're finally trying Linux out. There's been a lot of positive talk about it lately, so no matter what Valve have put Linux back on the radar.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
On a positive note, I got a survey last night. On Linux obviously. :D
Quoting: julkipThe title of the story suggested a number a biiiit more impressive than 0.7%, but It's a success anyway I guess ;)The title doesn't suggest anything, it's simply a fact.
trawzified Oct 2, 2018
PS: Proton is good but needs to get better (yes yes..I know its in its infancy). For example, I would really like scripts being introduced. Let users create scripts to tweak proton(or the game options) in order to run games, and then submit those scripts to valve for testing in order to make them official. Or..something..we need to gain momentum.
Quoting: trawzWell, I finally switched 100% to Linux this month, no more need for dual booting. Wine + DXVK replaced all need for a dual-boot solution. I hope more people will follow :)
I did this two years ago and there were plenty of games working on Linux back there.
Stopped watching games released only for Windows and I don't regret this decision. There were very few games that were released for Windows, that I wanted to try. (Mostly Warhammer titles - Steam Play allowed me to play Warhammer End Times: Vermintide
) But right now I still have some games in my (linux only) Library I didn't even tested. Not much time for playing right now.Last edited by Zlopez on 2 October 2018 at 11:24 am UTC
Arehandoro Oct 2, 2018
Quoting: SadLWhat I see is a massive 30% still using Windows 7. This might be our ticket to success. We got one year to improve Linux gaming. Windows 7 EOF is January 2020. If we could get even 1/10 of those users.Aren't most of these people Chinese? If so, they almost certainly won't switch to Linux.
Quoting: GuestIf i recall well, we were at .59% last month. That would make a relative 20% increase in proportion.That's good, but I wonder how long this growth rate will sustain. Surely Proton release have made a lot of people, who were dual booting, to switch completely to Linux - that's great. But with just them I guess we won't reach much more than 1% (remember that Linux desktop market share is around 2%).
We need more new and inexperienced people trying out Linux and for that we need friendly and welcoming community - they need to feel that Linux OS is for everybody and not for small tech elite.
Quoting: TPhasterQuoting: SadLWhat I see is a massive 30% still using Windows 7. This might be our ticket to success. We got one year to improve Linux gaming. Windows 7 EOF is January 2020. If we could get even 1/10 of those users.Aren't most of these people Chinese? If so, they almost certainly won't switch to Linux.
Why wouldn't they? Ubuntu Kylin is sponsored by the Chinese academy of sciences and Windows 10's snooping is a competitor to the great firewall. There is a reason the only North Korean OS was Android based - Linux is the easiest place to start. A Chinese company recently bought the license from AMD to make Ryzens and 4.18 saw them supported in the mainline Linux kernel.
I fully expect more states to start their national distro's as a cost saving measure, with business licenses for Windows increasing as a proportion of software licensing cost. This won't happen in the USA, but it might happen in Europe(France already provides Linux as one of the two OS's on parliamentary laptops) or in China/Saudi Arabia/Brazil. It's an interesting tactic to keep homegrown IT talent in the country.
Quoting: TPhasterYeah you are correct about that, but I still see many non-Chinese gamers using Windows 7. Even if they are not 30% but 10% or even a bit less, they are still a group that will have to make a choice sooner or later and they are also a group of people who chose not to upgrade to Windows 10 for 3 years.Quoting: SadLWhat I see is a massive 30% still using Windows 7. This might be our ticket to success. We got one year to improve Linux gaming. Windows 7 EOF is January 2020. If we could get even 1/10 of those users.Aren't most of these people Chinese? If so, they almost certainly won't switch to Linux.
Patreon
PayPal
See more from me