Something magical appears to be happening on Steam. Not only is Linux above 1% for another month but we've now seen 6 months of it continuing to rise. Going by our own historical stats, this makes it the highest it has been for over 3 years too.
When filtering to just Linux on the Steam Hardware Survey here's the most popular distributions:
- Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS 64 bit 16.87%
- "Manjaro Linux" 64 bit 11.83%
- Arch Linux 64 bit 11.57%
- Pop!_OS 21.04 64 bit 7.99%
- Linux Mint 20.2 64 bit 6.64%
- Ubuntu 21.04 64 bit 5.48%
There's also the Steam Flatpak listed but that's a cross-distribution thing.
Source - our Steam Tracker.
Initially their comparison percentages seemed to be comparing against August data. Valve corrected that now so they're looking right based on what they showed last month with Linux seeing a 0.08% increase.
Compared with historical data, Linux is going up dramatically (relatively speaking - for Linux) compared to the last few years. What is pushing this up though? That's still the big question. It seems likely at this point the Steam Deck hype and continued Steam Play Proton improvements just keep pulling in new users excited by it all. If all you care about is clicking Play on Steam, things have never been this good for Linux gaming.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Have they automated the hardware survey? I don't think I've had the popup in a couple of years now 🤔
6 Likes, Who?
Have they automated the hardware survey? I don't think I've had the popup in a couple of years now 🤔Nope, still opt-in if you get it. A lot of people don't which makes them think it's broken but it's a survey, you're not meant to get it constantly. I believe it's more likely if something big changed, which is part of the point for it to show what people are now using (which is why some dual-booters see it when switching).
4 Likes, Who?
I would guess a big part of the flatpak is fedora, if I am not mistaken they push it more than other distros.
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Recently I had it (the survey) three times in a single day.
I didn't had any hardware changes (which is also likely to trigger it), just some various distros testing.
I didn't had any hardware changes (which is also likely to trigger it), just some various distros testing.
1 Likes, Who?
Recently I had it (the survey) three times in a single day.
I didn't had any hardware changes (which is also likely to trigger it), just some various distros testing.
Surveys for me are a bit rare, I actually had one yesterday and the previous was more than a year ago I think but every time I get the survey, I get it on every machine I login that day, yesterday I got two surveys.
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Windows 11 might play a role as well.They already have more marketshare than linux :(
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I got my survey again early October. So still pretty much getting them once a year.
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I got my survey again early October. So still pretty much getting them once a year.
When I got mine, it always was on first of the respective month.
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Not only is Linux above 1% for another month but we've now seen 4 months of it continuing to rise.
If you look very close, it's even 6 months. ;)
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If you look very close, it's even 6 months. ;)Ooops! Even better. Fixed. Was too focused on the sudden surge.
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If you look very close, it's even 6 months. ;)Ooops! Even better. Fixed. Was too focused on the sudden surge.
I thought you've left out the small changes deliberately. :)
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gradyvuckovic Nov 2, 2021
Hopefully we see a similar increase in November.
If we do, then I am confident we will have likely an uninterrupted run of increases until at least July next year. Because December onward we will see Steam Decks being shipped and adding to the number of Linux PCs out there.
If we see an increase next month, that will be 7 months in a row, and likely followed by another 6 months. A year of nothing but marketshare increases. Optimistically, we may see Linux go as high as 2% next year.
Considering not too long ago, Linux was as low as 0.75%, that's a very good sign.
These increases affect the decision making of many large entities in choosing what platforms to support. If the marketshare goes high enough, we will start to see not only game publishers and developers taking Linux more seriously. We'll even start to see other game distributors at least making an effort to make their services easier to use on Linux.
If we hit 2%, I wouldn't rule out getting official native support from companies like Logitech, Razor, Epic (EGS), CDPR (GOG), etc.
If we hit 5%, it's only matter of time before ALL the major game distributors and game hardware makers have native software support available for Linux.
We're getting there. Slowly but surely. Just have to keep chipping away at it.
If we do, then I am confident we will have likely an uninterrupted run of increases until at least July next year. Because December onward we will see Steam Decks being shipped and adding to the number of Linux PCs out there.
If we see an increase next month, that will be 7 months in a row, and likely followed by another 6 months. A year of nothing but marketshare increases. Optimistically, we may see Linux go as high as 2% next year.
Considering not too long ago, Linux was as low as 0.75%, that's a very good sign.
These increases affect the decision making of many large entities in choosing what platforms to support. If the marketshare goes high enough, we will start to see not only game publishers and developers taking Linux more seriously. We'll even start to see other game distributors at least making an effort to make their services easier to use on Linux.
If we hit 2%, I wouldn't rule out getting official native support from companies like Logitech, Razor, Epic (EGS), CDPR (GOG), etc.
If we hit 5%, it's only matter of time before ALL the major game distributors and game hardware makers have native software support available for Linux.
We're getting there. Slowly but surely. Just have to keep chipping away at it.
4 Likes, Who?
Awesome ! Less than 99% left to go before we dominate the world and rule the universe !
10 Likes, Who?
Mohandevir Nov 2, 2021
Awesome ! Less than 99% left to go before we dominate the world and rule the universe !
Universe is so overated... It's all about Metaverse now!
3 Likes, Who?
Have they automated the hardware survey? I don't think I've had the popup in a couple of years now 🤔
I got one yesterday, so probably not.
1 Likes, Who?
Windows 11 might play a role as well.They already have more marketshare than linux :(
I think the implication was that a) Win 11 is both underwhelming and has high hardware requirement and b) if you're going upgrade/re-install to a new O/S, it's a good time to try Linux anyway.
4 Likes, Who?
Windows 11 might play a role as well.They already have more marketshare than linux :(
I think the implication was that a) Win 11 is both underwhelming and has high hardware requirement and b) if you're going upgrade/re-install to a new O/S, it's a good time to try Linux anyway.
Yes. While as a Windows user, I wouldn't care too much about official hardware requirements, there's been rumours like Microsoft not offering updates for non-conforming system (which would be many). Windows users are really "urinated against". I saw some users who said they will try gaming on Linux now for this reason (though it's not been more than I've got fingers on one hand ;) ).
2 Likes, Who?
Hey!Linux Dominate world?Not going to happen before an attack from - surprise - from planet Mars. Yes I have looked though my telescope and seen martian spaceships gathering near Mars. And what is really jolly good is that there's tux logo on the side of the flagship!
Hooray!Microsoft's end is near.Soon we'll be freed from Microsoft's slavery and the new tux era shall begin when Microsoft's virus infested OS shall be vanquished by good martians. Then there can be only one OS and you know it. Well what a good story with some humour! But What it comes to that hardware survey I expect that Linux's share will continue to rise especially in the next year.I really hope it.We live exciting times!
Hooray!Microsoft's end is near.Soon we'll be freed from Microsoft's slavery and the new tux era shall begin when Microsoft's virus infested OS shall be vanquished by good martians. Then there can be only one OS and you know it. Well what a good story with some humour! But What it comes to that hardware survey I expect that Linux's share will continue to rise especially in the next year.I really hope it.We live exciting times!
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Mohandevir Nov 2, 2021
Seriously, if futur Steam Deck users are starting to like SteamOS 3.0, find the desktop mode easy to use and Valve decides to release a more "general desktop" version of SteamOS 3.0 (meaning it includes an automatic way to install and update all the standard drivers for desktop PC support), it could really help Linux gain a solid foothold in the market.
1 Likes, Who?
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