The latest Steam Hardware & Software Survey is out for June 2022, putting the Linux user share at one of its highest ever points and likely thanks to the rise of the Steam Deck and SteamOS. As shown on our dedicated Steam Tracker, it's been trending upwards for quite a while but this latest figure is a pretty good showing.
As of June 2022, Linux is sitting at 1.18% of the Steam user share.
Now, that doesn't sound like a lot on paper, but it puts the monthly active Linux user count at around 1,557,600 at least (based on when Valve last gave the monthly active user count).
Here's the breakdown of the most popular Linux systems:
- "Arch Linux" 64 bit 11.42% -1.43%
- "Manjaro Linux" 64 bit 10.11% -0.98%
- Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 64 bit 9.90% +1.86%
- Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS 64 bit 9.73% -2.02%
- "SteamOS Holo" 64 bit 7.58% +2.35%
- Linux Mint 20.3 64 bit 6.45% +0.48%
- Description:Freedesktop.org 21.08.14 (Flatpak runtime) 64 bit 6.05% +6.05%
- Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS 64 bit 4.79% +4.79%
- Other 33.96% -11.11%
So you can pretty plainly see that the Steam Deck with SteamOS is already rising up the ranks, as one of the most popular Linux gaming systems on Steam's survey with it already making up well over 7% of Linux players which is a nice increase from the 5% from May 2022.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Mountain Man Jul 3, 2022
Quoting: slaapliedjeI would be all in for an update of the Steam Controller. Will it happen, though? Apparently the original Steam Controller didn't sell enough for Valve to bother keeping it on the market, so I don't know how eager they are to bring it back.Quoting: mphuZIt's a shame that Valve hasn't released the SteamOS desktop distribution yet.We need a Steam Controller 2 to properly use the Deck's UI on the desktop... we are missing, at the very least, tge Steam button and the one that brings up tge overlay.
And even the new Big Picture is missing in the beta version of Steam.
There is a way to use the DeckUI on the desktop now, with just normal Steam.
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Mountain Man Jul 3, 2022
Quoting: Purple Library GuyHow many people buying a Steam Deck but have never used Linux are going to bother trying to install Linux on their desktop based on their experience with the Steam Deck? My guess is very few because it's a console that does everything it can to hide the operating system from the average user (although it does give "power users" more freedom than a typical console).Quoting: Mountain ManGreat for Valve and the Steam Deck, but what does it really mean for Linux? It reminds me of the Android situation, where everybody who has an Android phone in their pocket is technically using Linux, but that in and of itself does nothing to advance the cause for Linux.I think there is a pretty simple, key distinction here: Programs written to run on Android will not run on desktop Linux. But programs written to run on SteamOS, or for that matter programs SteamOS arranges to run even though they were written for Windows, do.
So. Improving the software ecosystem for Android does not improve it for Linux, but improving the software ecosystem for SteamOS does.
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Quoting: michaldybczakWe already have community OSes like Chimera OS....
Somethin' I really don't need. All these systems "from the community" had decades to gain a foothold. None of them met expectations. We need a good system that is popular and trusted by the developer (Valve). Valve has it all.
Quoting: michaldybczakSaid that, I don't think that releasing SteamOS for PCs will happen or if it happens, it may not be a good thing
No need to overestimate. This is the same Linux as other distributions. It's just that SteamOS and its components are not finished, which proves the postponement of the Steam Deck release and large-scale patches for SteamOS and Big Picture.
Valve should provide SteamOS to users. It will be an amazing experience and will give a big boost to Linux.
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slaapliedje Jul 3, 2022
Quoting: Mountain ManQuoting: slaapliedjeI would be all in for an update of the Steam Controller. Will it happen, though? Apparently the original Steam Controller didn't sell enough for Valve to bother keeping it on the market, so I don't know how eager they are to bring it back.Quoting: mphuZIt's a shame that Valve hasn't released the SteamOS desktop distribution yet.We need a Steam Controller 2 to properly use the Deck's UI on the desktop... we are missing, at the very least, tge Steam button and the one that brings up tge overlay.
And even the new Big Picture is missing in the beta version of Steam.
There is a way to use the DeckUI on the desktop now, with just normal Steam.
My thoughts on the cancelation of the Steam Controller... was not based on sales (or lack of) but so they could focus solely on the Deck. If you look at earlt prototypes of the SC, it almost looked exactly like the Steam Deck. Touch screen and all. I think essentially what happened was when they were first designing the controller they wanted a sort of controller / streaming system that could connect to your PC to play games.
Look at all the things they have done toward this, the Steam Link, Controller and now Deck. If they could have combined the Link and Controller together, it could have been a semi-portable system, not unlike what the Deck became. The Steam Deck just happens to have been able to be developed because AMD is now capable of making very small form factor systems, due to all of their experience from years of designing consoles.
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Quoting: Mountain ManHow many people buying a Steam Deck but have never used Linux are going to bother trying to install Linux on their desktop based on their experience with the Steam Deck? My guess is very few because it's a console that does everything it can to hide the operating system from the average user (although it does give "power users" more freedom than a typical console).More than would without it. We knew how great Linux is, but Windows users didn't believe it. Now they can see for themselves without having to go through the trouble and learning curve of installing it first.
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Quoting: mphuZSteamOS isn't growing fast because it "meets expectations", it's growing fast because it "has a hardware platform it comes preinstalled on". Much like Pop!OS. It's big-selling hardware with Linux preinstalled that we've been really needing, not Linux distros with some sort of corporate "royal jelly".Quoting: michaldybczakWe already have community OSes like Chimera OS....
Somethin' I really don't need. All these systems "from the community" had decades to gain a foothold. None of them met expectations.
Plenty of "community" type distros are very good. I personally am very fond of Mint. As to Chimera, previously known as GamerOS, I haven't tried it but lots of people speak highly of it, and as far as I can tell there are nifty things it does that SteamOS doesn't. Well, and things SteamOS does that GamerOS doesn't, to be sure--but if neither of them had their own hardware platform, I'm not convinced that there would be huge grounds to prefer one over the other.
Last edited by Purple Library Guy on 3 July 2022 at 10:02 pm UTC
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Quoting: mphuZValve should provide SteamOS to users. It will be an amazing experience and will give a big boost to Linux.
Just like SteamOS v1 and v2 did?
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Quoting: Mountain ManQuoting: Purple Library GuyHow many people buying a Steam Deck but have never used Linux are going to bother trying to install Linux on their desktop based on their experience with the Steam Deck? My guess is very few because it's a console that does everything it can to hide the operating system from the average user (although it does give "power users" more freedom than a typical console).Quoting: Mountain ManGreat for Valve and the Steam Deck, but what does it really mean for Linux? It reminds me of the Android situation, where everybody who has an Android phone in their pocket is technically using Linux, but that in and of itself does nothing to advance the cause for Linux.I think there is a pretty simple, key distinction here: Programs written to run on Android will not run on desktop Linux. But programs written to run on SteamOS, or for that matter programs SteamOS arranges to run even though they were written for Windows, do.
So. Improving the software ecosystem for Android does not improve it for Linux, but improving the software ecosystem for SteamOS does.
I tend to agree with this sentiment. Yes a few may try out Linux from their Steam Deck experience, and even fewer will stick with it. I worry It may even have the opposite effect. The default deck experience is highly currated, polished and very nice. Half of those advanced options we've seen demo'd on this site and others, I don't know how to do on my desktop without looking it up. People trying Linux for the first, expecting a Deck like experience, might be highly disappointed (why won't Steam update my system?!? Packages?!? Command line!?!? 🤪)
The nice thing is that most main line distros are highly polished, and some come with Steam. If that's all you want, that's cool, but then there's no reason to move away from SteamOS (when released, ofc). I hope it causes more people to be interested in Linux, but I'm not expecting it.
Last edited by denyasis on 3 July 2022 at 10:42 pm UTC
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Mountain Man Jul 4, 2022
Quoting: CatKillerI'll admit to a certain degree of cynicism. I've been using Linux for probably two decades and have heard that "The Year of Linux" is just around the corner for about as long, but in all that time, we have seen no significant gains on the desktop. Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled that I can play just about any game I want on my preferred operating system, and I'm glad that Valve seems to be in it for the long haul, but while we will no doubt see an increase in people playing games on Linux/Steam thanks to the Steam Deck, I don't expect to see the Linux desktop market share grow by any appreciable amount.Quoting: Mountain ManHow many people buying a Steam Deck but have never used Linux are going to bother trying to install Linux on their desktop based on their experience with the Steam Deck? My guess is very few because it's a console that does everything it can to hide the operating system from the average user (although it does give "power users" more freedom than a typical console).More than would without it. We knew how great Linux is, but Windows users didn't believe it. Now they can see for themselves without having to go through the trouble and learning curve of installing it first.
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CyborgZeta Jul 4, 2022
Right now, I'm not sure what the future holds with SteamOS 3.0 myself. The experience as it is now is highly tailored to the Deck, perhaps even handheld PCs in general, and I'm not sure how Valve could/would adjust it for general desktop usage with wildly varying hardware.
At a minimum, I don't expect SteamOS to cause desktop Linux to gain any significant ground. However, I do think SteamOS will become a popular option for pre-built gaming PCs, whatever form they might take. We might even see the return of Steam Machines in some fashion, although that might be optimistic.
At a minimum, I don't expect SteamOS to cause desktop Linux to gain any significant ground. However, I do think SteamOS will become a popular option for pre-built gaming PCs, whatever form they might take. We might even see the return of Steam Machines in some fashion, although that might be optimistic.
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