For a third month in a row, Linux remains above 1% on the Steam Hardware Survey

Fantastic news, especially considering that the Steam Deck hasn't even shipped yet, and we will likely see the biggest increases when it does. Valve will be shipping Decks at a rate roughly equal to whatever their manufacturing capacity is, in an effort to work through the backlog of reservations for at least 6 months. Once we hit December, can probably expect to see the number going up every month for at least those 6 months..

We're now well above trend and had 3 months in a row with increases, gut instinct tells me surely we'll see at least one month where the number will go down, even if it's just due to noise in the statistics gathering method.

But the trend is clear, things are looking up for Linux, happy days.


Last edited by gradyvuckovic on 2 October 2021 at 9:48 am UTC

There has been constant rise for a while now, which in itself hasn't happened this long before. Which is good as rise starts from quite low point.

There might be even more interest in Linux when Steam Deck actually comes out.

As for the publicity, I noticed this few days ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvosJN00d2w

I would sure would hope that if they compete on how long they can keep Linux on their main machine, something about that competition gets mentioned later on.

There's at least a few guys at my work who pre-ordered a Steam Deck, and none are big on Linux, much less on Linux gaming. Actually they are more of console gamers, and are comparing the Steam Deck with the likes of Nintendo Switch.

I think it has to do with Windows 11 and the Hardware support and now the News with the Anti Cheats Proton support.

There's at least a few guys at my work who pre-ordered a Steam Deck, and none are big on Linux, much less on Linux gaming. Actually they are more of console gamers, and are comparing the Steam Deck with the likes of Nintendo Switch.

I feel that's ok. So many people are using phones or routers (or lamps :D ) that are running Linux and they don't know...

There has been constant rise for a while now, which in itself hasn't happened this long before. Which is good as rise starts from quite low point.

There might be even more interest in Linux when Steam Deck actually comes out.

As for the publicity, I noticed this few days ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvosJN00d2w

I would sure would hope that if they compete on how long they can keep Linux on their main machine, something about that competition gets mentioned later on.

Why don't we encourage ppl or ourselves(those that still Dualboot) to participate in this challenge:
Switch to Linux(on your gaming machine) for at least 6Months or so.
There could even be a Hashtag or some kind of little trend, this could help promoting Linux and generate more momentum.
Maybe some of you guys have a nice Idea for a Hashtag?

Edit: Tell your friends about it or Post about it in social Mdeia, and afterwards share your experience with it.


Last edited by Lamdarer on 2 October 2021 at 10:29 am UTC

There has been constant rise for a while now, which in itself hasn't happened this long before. Which is good as rise starts from quite low point.

There might be even more interest in Linux when Steam Deck actually comes out.

As for the publicity, I noticed this few days ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvosJN00d2w

I would sure would hope that if they compete on how long they can keep Linux on their main machine, something about that competition gets mentioned later on.

Why don't we encourage ppl or ourselves(those that still Dualboot) to participate in this challenge:
Switch to Linux(on your gaming machine) for at least 6Months or so.
There could even be a Hashtag or some kind of little trend, this could help promoting Linux and generate more momentum.
Maybe some of you guys have a nice Idea for a Hashtag?

Edit: Tell your friends about it or Post about it in social Mdeia, and afterwards share your experience with it.

Good idea. If just everybody would use the same hashtag, it could gain some traction.

I was thinking to write a convoluted essay about reasons why people are shifting to Linux. But instead of that, I think I'll just put forward some bullet points which I think are relevant:

- Many households own more than one computer, typically a newer model, and an older one. Also, a Desktop and a Laptop.

- Having multiple computers means you can use one for all your regular activity (Banking, office software, etc) and *mess around* with the other one. Think I'll have a go at installing a different OS on here.

- People are curious about Linux. In what ways is it different to Windows. Maybe I'd prefer it. Maybe trying it out will be fun.

- People are *slowly* becoming more aware of Surveillance Capitalism, and that Big Corporations are spying on them and manipulating them. People who want to *take back control* look at the options and realise that Linux is the way forward.

- Tech channels like Linus Tech Tips, various gamer channels are creating hype about Linux and the Steam Deck. Hype gets people thinking about things and wanting to know more.

- Valve's work on supporting Linux and developing Proton has made it that the typical gamer is more aware that proper gaming on Linux is now possible. Our group of GamingOnLinux enthusiasts has known it for years, but the realisation is finally dawning on more regular 'Windows' and 'Console' gamers.

- The chicken and egg thing. As marketshare on Linux grows, so will developer interest in supporting Linux. More developer interest means more native games. More native games/working on Proton games means greater appeal of the Linux OS to more general computer users.


Last edited by g000h on 2 October 2021 at 1:48 pm UTC

I've moved to Ubuntu last week after using the windows 11 dev builds for months, and I'm loving everything about ubuntu and linux in general, I haven't encountered any issues with it.
Almost all games that I have tried worked flawlessly with proton

I've moved to Ubuntu last week after using the windows 11 dev builds for months, and I'm loving everything about ubuntu and linux in general, I haven't encountered any issues with it.
Almost all games that I have tried worked flawlessly with proton

Welcome to the dark side! We've got cooki... penguins!

- People are curious about Linux. In what ways is it different to Windows. Maybe I'd prefer it. Maybe trying it out will be fun.

Also there's tradition that if Microsoft messes up, people get curious about Linux. I think going as far back as Windows Vista. If there's mess on Linux side, there's also possibility to switch distros instead of just going back to Windows.

Not related to gaming, but at work, in a public school, they changed about 1/3 of Windows to Linux because of Win11 "killing" some of the machines.

So instead of having 1/3 less computers, they tried Linux (Mint), and they are finding they like it...

- People are curious about Linux. In what ways is it different to Windows. Maybe I'd prefer it. Maybe trying it out will be fun.

Also there's tradition that if Microsoft messes up, people get curious about Linux. I think going as far back as Windows Vista. If there's mess on Linux side, there's also possibility to switch distros instead of just going back to Windows.

I recall a lot of talk about people moving from Windows 7 (which by Windows standards was rather good) now that it's lost support from Microsoft early last year. I imagine by now people are starting to notice the effects of no longer having updates and are interested in something that's *not* the newer versions of Windows.

This article has been mentioned by Blue. We are getting some recognition!

To the moon!!!

Would be interested in the "Other", since what we see is all Ubuntu or Ubuntu based or Arch or Arch based.

Would like to know how others, as Solus, Fedora, Suse are doing. There are not so many big players, but personally with Fedoras switch to Wayland that would be interesting.

For me I switched due to my PC (i7-6700k and a 3090FE) not being Windows 11 compatible. I was so annoyed at Microsoft with their idiotic requirements that it was really the straw that broke the camels back and I see/saw it as nothing more than a scam to get people buying new hardware, in not so great times to do so either.
Enough is enough.

I currently still have Windows 10 installed on the main HD but I'm not bothered with it.

I run Garuda Linux as my main distro now because it just works well with the 3090 whereas near all other arch distros fail to either boot up live images or fail after install showing black screens or not recognising the nvidia 3090 correctly.

Also running ZorinOS16 on another drive (fantastic Ubuntu based distro) and I've a third smaller ssd which I use then for trying other Linux distros out on.

Garuda Linux though is tops for me, everything just works really well and is the most stable arch based distros I've ever used.

Love your site btw, enjoy reading it every day.

I'm on Pop!_OS for most stable OS now. Don't have any Win and i don't care about them.
I have try almost all distros in distrowatch top 100, and at least i stay with POP, because is super stable with any updates.
It's not the fastest, but super stable.
I have one small SSD to try all new distros.
I found that, if you have too many boot options(when you press: (F1, F2, F11, F12, ESC) when boot PC, you will get system crash.
When i got like 20+ boot options left from all distro i try, i need to clean all unused UEFI boot records.
Then all are ok with boot options.

From my experience i can say that:
Arch-based, and Viod Linux distros are the fastest with booting and updating/installing packages.
Deepin are good looking, but slow with booting and updating.
Ubuntu 20.04+ breaks often after updates. You will get black screen after booting or cicling log-in. So i need fix it often, sometime i cannot. So i move to POP and don't see any break in any way.
POP are Ubuntu based, but they have many packages that replaces Ubuntu's packages for good.


Last edited by deathxxx on 3 October 2021 at 9:06 am UTC

- People are curious about Linux. In what ways is it different to Windows. Maybe I'd prefer it. Maybe trying it out will be fun.

Also there's tradition that if Microsoft messes up, people get curious about Linux. I think going as far back as Windows Vista. If there's mess on Linux side, there's also possibility to switch distros instead of just going back to Windows.

I know I got frustrated with windows background tasks when I was around 14 and found out about Linux but didn't have a disk to burn. Just before I started my first year of uni my internet stopped working. I looked online untill I found this comment on a how to fix internet on windows video saying it was an update to edge. I reverted to the previous windows update and then paused OS updates. It worked temporally which I assume was because the broken code was part of update and thus removed. However because it was part of Microsoft edge and that's an app the broken code came in via an app update. Thus when I rebooted the internet stopped working. Do I used USB tethering to burn a flash drive and here I am. To think if windows had some sort of accessable package manager like macOS android, probably IOS this wouldn't have been an issue

Just yesterday I was able to participate in a Steam survey again. The pop-up came up when I started it. So we already have one more user for October. :)