Linux has finally hit that almost mythical 1% user share on Steam again

Let's hope the ones crossing over do not come into contact with GNOME desktop first. Otherwise they might start to find windows 11 not so bad after all. ;-)

and that's debatable. My personal experience is that when I introduce some non-techie to Linux Gnome works best (with addad dock and some minor tweaks). Those were folks that actually kept using Linux.
With "techies" KDE is usually the best choice. Sucks with default settings but you can do almost anything with it.
IMO one of the issues with Linux desktop is by default every single DE sucks... even though every single one (among the major ones) is actually awesome.

Gnome out of the box is ugly and to make it useful you have to add plugins to it. The default should be a useable desktop without the user having to do anything.

Imagine if a Windows user had to add a taskbar themselves...

Say what you want about KDE but out of the box it is useful and a user doesn't have to do anything to it.

I wager a hefty chunk of Linux users do not allow the survey because "oh no, privacy!"

I'm not sure. I could also imagine Windows users say "No, why would I?!?", while Linux users, having eagerly waited for their vote, scream "Hell yeah!". At least I did! ;)

I wager a hefty chunk of Linux users do not allow the survey because "oh no, privacy!"

I'm not sure. I could also imagine Windows users say "No, why would I?!?", while Linux users, having eagerly waited for their vote, scream "Hell yeah!". At least I did! ;)

You are all making this too complex. In my experience people just click yes to anything that pops up without reading it.

I will be happier if the jump was after releasing this version of proton (which should support any Windows games).

Proton will never support all Windows Games. But "most" should suffice.

Proton is why I got back on Linux, so I'd say that's what making it grow.

Now I have both things I love in same system: Games I like to play and open source OS that I can tinker with.

Considering I'm also a gamedev and developer in general, Linux is perfect for me.

Gnome out of the box is ugly and to make it useful you have to add plugins to it. The default should be a useable desktop without the user having to do anything.

Imagine if a Windows user had to add a taskbar themselves...

Whether Gnome is pretty or not will always boil down to personal preference. All desktops provide the means to launch applications, switch between them and arrange windows. That's pretty much all I need a desktop for. Most distros nowaday come with Gnome as their default choice and many of them in turn add their set of extensions to add functionality deemed missing. Ubuntu or Pop OS is perfectly usable OOTB.
The really grating thing about Linux? The users that have to start a flame wars just about anything. DEs, init systems, audio servers, file systems. The list goes on.

I would expect the Steam Deck announcement timed with the latest LTTs video, probably has something to do with it.

I also fully expect we will see more months of 'less than 1%', since we're 'well above the trend line' right now, but that's nothing to feel bad about. What matters is that the trend is good, we're inching higher. Eventually it will be normal to see months above 1%.

Next milestone: 2%!

sure, just wait more 30 years for the 2% mark

Let's hope the ones crossing over do not come into contact with GNOME desktop first. Otherwise they might start to find windows 11 not so bad after all. ;-)

and that's debatable. My personal experience is that when I introduce some non-techie to Linux Gnome works best (with addad dock and some minor tweaks).

Which is fine if you're introducing them to it and doing that for them, but if someone tries Linux by themselves the Gnome user experience will be quite different.
The other question is, as opposed to which other options? If it was me, I'd put new non-techie Linux users on Mate or Cinnamon.

IMO one of the issues with Linux desktop is by default every single DE sucks... even though every single one (among the major ones) is actually awesome.

Mint with Mate is IMO good, and very familiar to a classic Windows user, right out of the box. Taskbar that shows tasks, at the bottom by default, windows that act normally, menu on the left end, the good old fashioned WIMP stuff. You can change it, I personally tweak Mate to give me an extra taskbar up the right hand side where I keep launchers, but how it starts out is the basic Windows style deal (only without various Windows-style annoyances).

I wonder how those results are computed. Are these based on total connected users every day? Are they based on a sample of users? On all users at one particular moment?

Many factors could explain the "up-and-down" pattern shown on the graph.

One possible explanation could be that many Linux users aren't hardcore gamers and don't connect to Steam all the time, which could explain the pattern. If we have a small sample of users, then the amount of Linux users fluctuate more.

I don't think over a million is a small enough sample for a whole lot of that.
I'm wondering more about what's happening with Chinese users. Very often when Linux % surges it's because Chinese user share dropped and so that very-low-Linux-use group was taken out of the pool. Someone needs to get Chinese gamers using Linux.

Of course it's also still true that the Steam Survey, which these numbers are based on, is opaque. We have no way of knowing how accurate it is or how it selects the sample; we do know that Valve has publicly mentioned correcting errors in it before now, which if you're an optimist means that after all these years of error correction it's probably pretty much OK, and if you're a pessimist means that all we know about it is they do make mistakes.


Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 2 August 2021 at 8:01 pm UTC

I wonder how those results are computed. Are these based on total connected users every day? Are they based on a sample of users? On all users at one particular moment?

Many factors could explain the "up-and-down" pattern shown on the graph.

One possible explanation could be that many Linux users aren't hardcore gamers and don't connect to Steam all the time, which could explain the pattern. If we have a small sample of users, then the amount of Linux users fluctuate more.

I don't think over a million is a small enough sample for a whole lot of that.
I'm wondering more about what's happening with Chinese users. Very often when Linux % surges it's because Chinese user share dropped and so that very-low-Linux-use group was taken out of the pool. Someone needs to get Chinese gamers using Linux.

Of course it's also still true that the Steam Survey, which these numbers are based on, is opaque. We have no way of knowing how accurate it is or how it selects the sample; we do know that Valve has publicly mentioned correcting errors in it before now, which if you're an optimist means that after all these years of error correction it's probably pretty much OK, and if you're a pessimist means that all we know about it is they do make mistakes.

The US ban on Huawei getting modern CPUs will probably encourage them to put more effort into Ubuntu Kylin, the distro maintained by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Simplified Chinese did fall by 0.4 % points, not more than the usual variation. English did go up by almost 2% though - the steam linux tracker has an entire graph for different languages. I didn't expect Russian to command a 10% market share though!


Last edited by Pikolo on 2 August 2021 at 8:48 pm UTC

Gnome out of the box is ugly and to make it useful you have to add plugins to it. The default should be a useable desktop without the user having to do anything.

yeah, but if you had actually read my post you'd notice I acknowledge that. IMO every single one of the major DEs on Linux are ugly. Gnome is a bit dysfunctional unless you're into very specific (and I'd argue for lot of workflows just not good) workflow with not so cool icons (even though they've improved and also Adwaita becomes bearable). KDE looks like someone puked rainbow on your screen, trying to make a windows clone with bad font choices and totally tangled settings and options. Xfce is like stepping back in time. I could go on.
But the thing is every single one can be made awesome. With Gnome you just install 2-3 extensions, tweak the same amount of settings (for example turn on extra window buttons) and install icon theme. With KDE you add a theme and spend quite a bit going through the settings then disable/tweak stuff that does not work so well (for example Kwallet or file search). And so on.
My belief is that most of the parts are there (or mostly there - like with sound system, where I had some hopes with Pipewire). They're just not put together well by default (maybe a bit better on Ubuntu) - maybe because we don't have much of actual frontend UI/UX designers on our platform. Or maybe there's no company that actually cares that will pay someone to do the tedious work nobody wants to do. I don't know.
But at least we could do it ourselves. No matter the DE - IMO most of them are awesome!

Mint with Mate is IMO good, and very familiar to a classic Windows user, right out of the box.

but IMO that's the wrong approach. Why would you go for a Windows clone if you can actually use Windows? We need to offer something better - and I believe Linux can do it.
Look for example at OSX - it is completely different from Windows, but quite a bit of pros (for example musicians, graphic designers etc) use it as it offers them a better experience.
That's IMO the correct approach - don't make duplicates, make something better.

Mint with Mate is IMO good, and very familiar to a classic Windows user, right out of the box.

but IMO that's the wrong approach. Why would you go for a Windows clone if you can actually use Windows?

Because Windows friggin' harasses you all the time.
I have no problems with the basic "stuff you do with a mouse" of Windows. Neither, I might add, do most people who already use Windows, who you're trying to get to move over. You are not going to generate enthusiasm for Linux among Windows users by saying "You'll get to do your whole workflow all different! Woo!" Nobody wants that. Even if it's an objectively (whatever that means in UI terms) better workflow, they still don't want it.

What's annoying about Windows is mostly all the Xtra Proprietary-ness. The way if you're not using Microsoft Edge as your browser (and who does?) it will keep on badgering you to start. The way it keeps popping up weird notifications that sound like something dire but if you think about it for a while is actually just them complaining that you set your settings not to hand over all your data. The other popups that are basically just incomprehensible and almost certainly irrelevant, but which sound like your computer is on fire or something. The "We just locked up your computer for a while so we can do updates" BS.
There's also the way that, since most of the software you're using is not open source and comes from various different vendors, they all separately and individually bug you about software updates (which half of them probably do badly), instead of your distro handling it all together. Software on Windows updates the way my games would if I bought each one individually from its vendor's own website instead of having Steam. Heck, even on my work machine, which is centrally updated by our fairly competent IT people, I still get a bunch of popups, from Firefox and Adobe and various ones that don't even say who they are just that it's desperately important for your software to update. Of course I have to tell them all no, because I know that if anyone's going to be updating any software on that desktop it'll be our IT people--but clearly they have no way of getting all that shit to shut up. Never have that on Linux. Just the little icon on the taskbar shows me there's updates I could install, and I can do them all at once when I'm not in the middle of something.
I also don't like the Windows non-tabbed file manager, and I don't like the way when I plug in a USB it just doesn't do anything, so I have to open some random folder and go find the USB in the Windows file manager's little list o' drives at the left side. And I'm pleased with Linux being somewhat less vulnerable to malware. And I like most of my software being open source and installable from one GUI. And I like that it doesn't phone home. And I'm pleased that, having the base vaguely Windows-like behaviour that I'm used to, I can then tweak things to suit, mostly in small ways, if I feel like it.

But the basic way stuff operates--what a left or right click does, the existence of the task bar that shows different things I have open, the menu at the lower left and so on, I have no interest in all the gee whiz clever stuff that people have come up with to make better, and I'd wager that if you took a poll among Windows users the majority would also be in that camp. So if you want to bring over Windows users to Linux, you might want to consider that they may not think their fundamental UI is broken and that therefore you might not want to try to fix it for them.

Mint with Mate is IMO good, and very familiar to a classic Windows user, right out of the box.

Look for example at OSX - it is completely different from Windows, but quite a bit of pros (for example musicians, graphic designers etc) use it as it offers them a better experience.

OK, look at it. So, first of all, every time I try to use OS X it drives me nuts. I cannot for the life of me figure out how to find a damn file, for instance. Lots of people like it, I'm sure it is excellent in its way, but the idea that it's just inherently intuitive and stuff is a triumph of marketing and socialization over real lived experience.
Second, there are two main reasons musicians, graphic designers etc. use OS X. The first is that it has an excellent software ecosystem for that kind of people. The second is the excellent and very expensive marketing that have successfully drummed it into the heads of artistically inclined people that they are not cool if they don't use Macs.
The actual user interface is a marginal factor.

Congrats to Linux users!!

Mint with Mate is IMO good, and very familiar to a classic Windows user, right out of the box.

but IMO that's the wrong approach. Why would you go for a Windows clone if you can actually use Windows?

Because Windows friggin' harasses you all the time.
I have no problems with the basic "stuff you do with a mouse" of Windows. Neither, I might add, do most people who already use Windows, who you're trying to get to move over. You are not going to generate enthusiasm for Linux among Windows users by saying "You'll get to do your whole workflow all different! Woo!" Nobody wants that. Even if it's an objectively (whatever that means in UI terms) better workflow, they still don't want it.

What's annoying about Windows is mostly all the Xtra Proprietary-ness. The way if you're not using Microsoft Edge as your browser (and who does?) it will keep on badgering you to start. The way it keeps popping up weird notifications that sound like something dire but if you think about it for a while is actually just them complaining that you set your settings not to hand over all your data. The other popups that are basically just incomprehensible and almost certainly irrelevant, but which sound like your computer is on fire or something. The "We just locked up your computer for a while so we can do updates" BS.
There's also the way that, since most of the software you're using is not open source and comes from various different vendors, they all separately and individually bug you about software updates (which half of them probably do badly), instead of your distro handling it all together. Software on Windows updates the way my games would if I bought each one individually from its vendor's own website instead of having Steam. Heck, even on my work machine, which is centrally updated by our fairly competent IT people, I still get a bunch of popups, from Firefox and Adobe and various ones that don't even say who they are just that it's desperately important for your software to update. Of course I have to tell them all no, because I know that if anyone's going to be updating any software on that desktop it'll be our IT people--but clearly they have no way of getting all that shit to shut up. Never have that on Linux. Just the little icon on the taskbar shows me there's updates I could install, and I can do them all at once when I'm not in the middle of something.
I also don't like the Windows non-tabbed file manager, and I don't like the way when I plug in a USB it just doesn't do anything, so I have to open some random folder and go find the USB in the Windows file manager's little list o' drives at the left side. And I'm pleased with Linux being somewhat less vulnerable to malware. And I like most of my software being open source and installable from one GUI. And I like that it doesn't phone home. And I'm pleased that, having the base vaguely Windows-like behaviour that I'm used to, I can then tweak things to suit, mostly in small ways, if I feel like it.

But the basic way stuff operates--what a left or right click does, the existence of the task bar that shows different things I have open, the menu at the lower left and so on, I have no interest in all the gee whiz clever stuff that people have come up with to make better, and I'd wager that if you took a poll among Windows users the majority would also be in that camp. So if you want to bring over Windows users to Linux, you might want to consider that they may not think their fundamental UI is broken and that therefore you might not want to try to fix it for them.

Overall, I agree with that.

When I made the switch (back in September 2019) from Windows 7 (which gave me full satisfaction by the way, but you know, end of support BS) to Linux, I wasn't looking for something arguably better or different. I wanted to find a replacement for Windows 7 look and feel, and Cinnamon filled that job for me.

I guess it would be the same for someone who would like to switch from Mac, they would probably be looking for something that resemble what they previously had. Because the DE is usually not the main reason to switch OS.

120 millions of monthly active users in 2021. 1% of that is 1.2 million, and dual boot are obviously not counted.
When developpers say 1% do not worth it, they are letting 1.2M potential customers on the side of the road.
And i really think a Linux (or Mac OSX) user have more chances to buy a game than a Windows one, because he have significantly less choice.

OSX has 2.5%, that is approximately 3 millions of users.

I'm wondering how many users became to "worth it" for some.

When I made the switch (back in September 2019) from Windows 7 (which gave me full satisfaction by the way, but you know, end of support BS) to Linux, I wasn't looking for something arguably better or different. I wanted to find a replacement for Windows 7 look and feel, and Cinnamon filled that job for me.

Same with me when I made the switch from Windows 7 in 2014. I picked Cinammon Cinnamon (which I can never spell correctly on the first try ) because it was familiar; I was already having to retrain my brain from a decade of computer use to a new operating system, I didn't need any crazy taskbars on the top of the screen or docks on the side or what have you to make things even more confusing. And I've been doing jobs requiring Linux use and programming for almost a decade now, imagine the average non-computer-literate person!

To be clear, it's fantastic that Linux offers multiple DEs for the power users looking for something new, or better, or more efficient, but I suspect the majority of Windows users see something like that and think "intimidating," not "enticing." (And thankfully, there are the more conservative DEs we can use to lure them in. )

And I've been doing jobs requiring Linux use and programming for almost a decade now, imagine the average non-computer-literate person!

This is a fallacy, btw. If you're not into computers, you're only looking skin-deep. "This is the Internet, this is the app store, this is the update button" is all they need to know. Linux is the ideal grandmother OS. It's the Windows Power Users that have the hardest time; they're very familiar with the entrails of Windows and freak out about Linux' guts being different when they try to poke at them.


Last edited by CatKiller on 3 August 2021 at 9:32 am UTC

I don't get why the graphs count only "Spanish from Spain". Quite frankly is not fair to Spanish :P, it's the same as counting only English from GB. Sorry but it doesn't make sense.

The Steam language settings distinguish between Spanish - Spain and Spanish - Latin America, and also Portuguese and Portuguese-Brazil, so they get separate entries in the Steam Hardware Survey. The GOL graphs don't show all the languages.