No news is good news, as the saying goes, or something like that. Valve updated the Steam Hardware & Software Survey for July 2024 and for Linux / Steam Deck the changes were pretty minimal. You can see the Linux share over time on our Steam Tracker.
For July 2024 the operating system stats are:
- Windows 96.55% -0.06%
- Linux: 2.08% (no change)
- macOS 1.37% +0.06%
Here's the main Linux distribution stats:
- SteamOS Holo 64 bit (Steam Deck) 40.97% -0.20%
- Arch Linux 64 bit 7.99% -0.09%
- Freedesktop SDK 23.08 (Flatpak runtime) 64 bit 6.35% -0.36%
- Linux Mint 21.3 64 bit 5.20% +0.10%
- Ubuntu 22.04.4 LTS 64 bit 4.04% -0.22%
- Ubuntu 24.04 LTS 64 bit 3.41% +0.38%
- Ubuntu Core 22 64 bit 2.99% +0.02%
- "Manjaro Linux" 64 bit 2.93% -0.16%
- Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS 64 bit 2.73% +0.08%
- Debian GNU/Linux 12 (bookworm) 64 bit 2.44% +2.44%
- Other 20.96% -1.98%
See more on the Steam Survey.
Meanwhile according to Statcounter, Linux overall hit another all-time high.
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
Quoting: HighballNot gonna argue, I do feel like there's a qualitative shift going on that makes further adoption easier.Quoting: Purple Library GuyQuoting: LamdarerPerfectionI mean, I'm very positive and all, but actually that graph makes it kind of clear: We're talking about 1% in 2 1/2 years. At that rate, in 25 years we'll be at 12%. World domination in under 250 years!
That said, significantly faster than the Linux desktop share grew from ~2000 to 2022, so still seems like pretty good times!
I think the network effect kicks in soon. Feels like it's happening now. It's shocking to see average users getting help with their game in non-Linux specific forums. That would just never, ever happen prior to the SteamDeck. In the past 25 years, MSFT has always been able to scuttle the ground Linux has made with gaming or hardware compatibility, if not that, MSFT has always used the power of their purse to crush any Linux adoption. So far there has been no response from MSFT, other than forcing it's OEM's to produce some of the worst handheld experiences. And their OEM's can't use SteamOS or they risk losing their volume licensing deals which would be suicide in volume pc sales. MSFT really has one chance to bring a handheld XBox OS that plays PC games for their OEMs. If they can't do that in the next 2-3 years and the SteamDeck2 releases, any XboxOS handheld will be DOA. MSFT needs a DX13 that is so compelling it forces every game studio to stop what they are doing and retool. Right now, as it is, in 2-3 years, game studios will be releasing games that were designed with Proton as a first class citizen. All these game studios will have support for Proton support built-in to their tools and libraries. MSFT is running out of time to scuttle gaming on Linux. I know I'm always optimistic about everything in life especially Linux. But seriously I am still gobsmacked over AAA titles SteamDeck verified day 1. Things are just different. It's exciting to see how it all fleshes out.
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