According to these new numbers from Valve, the Linux customer base is up to 1.96%, or a 0.52% jump over June! That’s a huge jump with normally just moving 0.1% or so in either direction most months… It’s also near an all-time high on a percentage basis going back to the early days of Steam on Linux when it had around a 2% marketshare but at that time the Steam customer size in absolute numbers was much smaller a decade ago than it is now. So if the percentage numbers are accurate, this is likely the largest in absolute terms that the Linux gaming marketshare has ever been.
Data from Valve: https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Software-Survey-Welcome-to-Steam?platform=combined
This is awesome! Hopefully we see even more devices coming out with SteamOS in the near future
I switched to Linux last year, and have been having a mostly smooth single-player experience. It’s not perfect, but the improvements that have been made in Linux gaming (in large part by Valve) are undeniable.
Ask yourself why is not perfect
It’s interesting that Lemmy is still small enough I can remember a shithead from yesterday with a certain username that is also being a shithead today…
Plenty of people ask themselves that, which is precisely why so much work has been done to improve it.
Like come one, just drop your attitude here.
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I have a steam deck but I also recently changed from Windows to Pop!_OS on my gaming rig. I’m very much enjoying it so far
Is Pop OS the new “I use Arch” meme? I see people mentioning it almost everywhere linux is talked about.
It’s just a neat little distro. Probably the only one I’ve used that haven’t imploded itself with daily use so far.
Pop is no meme, it’s awesome and easy.
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Pop OS is the new Ubuntu if anything.
Kinda sad people dismiss Linux Mint, but I can definitely see how PopOS can appeal more to users.
I have used Pop!_OS and nothing but it, for almost three years on my computer; I am sure there are sexier distros out there, but it gets the job done. Nothing wrong with Mint either.
Because it’s just amazing for new users, much better than Ubuntu.
Nah, people aren’t smug about using POP OS it’s more like Ubuntu for gamers.
I am using it specifically because of the hybrid Nvidia graphics on my laptop. Because they sell laptops with this setup, their OS supports it flawlessly. I’ll be honest, I’d rather be using something like Nobara, but there were games that weren’t working and I don’t have the patience to figure out how to get them working. Pop just works. That’s what I need.
Their installer automatically just has the proprietary drivers, which is really helpful for newer users.
Why is Pop OS required? Can’t you simply use their nVidia drivers in other Linux distributions?
I will bet money it’s not a proprietary driver and simply copied from another project. Where can I see the source code?
Edit: yep, it’s actually the stock Nvidia drivers that you can build and install on literally any Linux OS (and easier on Arch if you use paru by typing “paru nvidia”). So Pop OS implementation is nothing special.
Well yeah, the point is that they provide the driver from the beginning by including it in the ISO, meaning you dont need to set up the driver after installation and it just works
POP!_OS is also amazing because of System76s computer manufacturing efforts and the fact that they are building a wayland compositor desktop environment apart from GNOME and KDE which will probably have its first stable release on Ubuntu 24.04.
It’s the most excited I’ve been for a while.
I don’t think so. Maybe I’m misunderstood, but the “I use Arch” meme was meming on the fact that using Arch was a flex, like it’s harder to get into, and you’re a true blooded Linux user if you’re using Arch.
Whereas, Pop_OS is kind of the opposite. I’m fairly new to Linux (been using a Linux system as my daily driver for about a year), and Pop_OS was recommended as a beginner-friendly distro. Plus, it worked well with Nvidia cards with minimal effort. So maybe it seems like a lot of people are using Pop_OS and are bringing it up, because there are a lot of newer Linux users.
That’s an almost 25% increase, that’s huge!
So awesome they run a monopoly on videogames through their useless closed source spyware.
It’s not useless. None of the launchers are. I greatly appreciate the auto updating of games, earning achievements, among others things. Sure they have issues, but they would have been dethroned years ago if people didn’t like their software compared to companies like Epic.
Well, their position is what allowed them to do so much for Linux. And their desire to distance themselves from Microsoft, which I’m absolutely on board with.
The only desire they have for is money, this is the same company that doesn’t mind promoting gambling to kids. Their stupid ass closed source launcher that shouldn’t exist needed to run software is a million light years away from what Linux stand for
There are other colours than black and white, you know?
I fully agree that Valve has their share of issues. There’s things I too don’t like about them, but that doesn’t mean the good they do is worthless.
Bringing their spyware to linux isn’t anything good
“This program is spyware because it collects huge amounts of user information, including but not limited to your Home Address, Telephone Number, Credit Card Number, and Internet Search History. Steam also profiles your hardware, communications through Steam’s social networking features, and contains a mandatory self-updater. Steam will not work without an internet connection.”
Seems like they need to collect your address, telephone, and credit card number to process payments? Steam is it’s own internet browser, so the browser data it collects is from itself, not your personal browser.
You seem paranoid and this website seems to be incorrect or purposely stating things in a misleading way, oh and steam does work without and Internet connection
Steam shares your informations with third parties. Zetta you don’t seem to mind much so why don’t you tell us your real name, give us your home address, your telephone number and post a log or your search history? Don’t tell me you are paranoid
Did I ever say that I like how much data they collect? No.
That is absolutely one of the things I greatly dislike.
doesnt make them any better
When giants are fighting, we the little ones can benefit, if we’re smart.
Of course they did it because it benefits themselves. But it doesn’t only benefit themselves, which is more than you can say about many others.
They’ve done such amazing work for Linux. Linux gaming wouldn’t be the same without them.
and also made popular always online DRM,gambling and lootboxes.
It was going to happen regardless. Better It be Valve dominating the market instead of any other evil corp
No
lutris?
It would be especially cool for the other handhelds out there like the ROG Ally
Main downside for that is there’s 0 support for Nvidia GPU’s
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That’s still the previous version of SteamOS though. The Arch based one that’s on the Steam Deck still hasn’t been released for everyone to use.
lol you must be young,vvery young. valve is the fucking devil XD
Are you getting them confused with another company? Valve’s done bad things in the past of course, but they’re still a lot better than most other gaming companies that I know of. I typically put Valve alongside companies like Capcom and Sega as “one of the not bad ones” in terms of malicious practices.
No I’m not getting them confused them with anybody. I was there when they slapped their dick on the desk with half life 2 and always online DRM ,I’ve seen the rise of the counterstrike lootboxes and the blind eye valve turned to literal money laundering.
Fuck me they might be the worse ever but they somehow convinced you people they love you or something?
Again either you guys have a short memory or you are very very young.
I understand and that was one of the things I was thinking of when I said “Valve’s done bad things in the past of course”. But when you compare them to many other AAA publishers, I don’t see how Valve is particularly bad. Especially when you start bringing up lootboxes. Unlike many other publishes that go these same bad practices, and at a larger scale at that, value has done some good too, and is generally much more permissive about things like fanworks, and that does a lot to build good will. I don’t see what’s “short memory” about this.
And I’m not even saying that I love valve or anything either, but the devil? Compared to other publishers?
Well the thing you are missing is, steam is basically a monopoly and it sucks 30 fucking percent out of every game. Of course they don’t need to do shit anymore compared to ea and Ubisoft. THEY WON already. They de facto own the PC gaming space. But don’t be mistaken nobody has valves power in the PC space. Nobody. And they bought that position with immoral and illegal practices. I’m not gonna like them because it’s been 10 or 20 years. It’s the same company , they just are what EA would like to be. I can’t think of anybody worse honestly in terms of damage.
we can still play all games, no need for steam.
It does, but as a result we can now set up Linux on other machines and play a huge range of games. This removes one of the main obstacles for many people with Linux.
It was the reason I moved to Linux. Though with another arch based distro and not the deck
Yeah that’s what I’m thinking. Great that Linux is getting more representation overall though. Wonder how anti-cheat implementations work nowadays, I remember them not being supported on Linux before, so games didn’t run.
Actually the common anti cheat solutions provided Linux support for a while, but the developers/publishers have been choosing not to enable it.
It also pushes developers to ensure their games run on Linux, even if it’s through Proton
You have to glad when they don’t implement their own crappy launcher nowadays. Looking at you Bioshock Remastered! (btw, you can skip it via the launch options)
I have not found a way to bypass Larian Studios launcher in launch options but you can make a shortcut to the exe directly.
You can skip it with the
--skip-launcherlaunch option
Love the Deck. I actually finish games with retro or pixel art aesthics with the deck compared to my PC or consoles. The pick up and go aspect and the smaller screen helps me keep coming back to it instead of abandoning it.
Previous 12 months:
June 2023: -0.03%
May 2023: +0.15%
April 2023: +0.48%
March 2023: -0.43%
February 2023: -0.11%
January 2023: no difference
December 2023: -0.06%
November 2022: +0.16%
October 2022: +0.05%
September 2022: -0.04%
August 2022: +0.04%
July 2022: +0.05%It would seem Linux among Steam users shows a growth tendency.
Hopefully this tendency keeps going strong!These wild swings don’t make me very inclined to trust steam numbers
What happened in April and March?
looks like what happened was that A LOT of Chinese users entered the data which caused windows to go up significantly and linux to drop off slightly
But how does that explain the huge increase the month before? It would need to have a lot of user using Linux for a bit and then stop using it after
Count me as one of those new Linux users. I’ve been trying to switch since the 90’s and Linux gaming is finally viable. I know this is in large part thanks to Valve, so thanks, Valve!
The day win10 stops being supported is the day I switch to Linux
If the games you are playing don’t run on linux than you are mostly playing crap designed by people who’s main goal is to empty your pockets and who think that you are stupid
why are you guys downvoting him, he’s right
I know countless amazing indie developers who can only afford to target and support Windows as Linux doesn’t generate them any or enough income. They certainly aren’t trying to empty anyone’s pockets, instead supporting their games for years and constantly adding new content for free.
Linux gamers don’t buy every game that developers have put the time and effort into shipping native binaries. Proton is the ideal stop gap until Linux has a bigger user base that can result in a return on investment for native binaries.
“Don’t run on linux” does include via Wine/Proton.
I wouldn’t call them amazing if they would rather focus on free/pay content rather than releasing binaries for linux. I wouldn’t call them amazing either if they consider releasing binaries as an investment.
There’s plenty of devs who work on their games without the ambition to bank the stock market.
Did you just wake up today and decide to be an asshole, or is this your usual temperament?
Ugh right? People like that make others not want to use Linux out of spite.
-311 comment points in 8 days. Clearly their usual temperament.
It’s festering toxicity like that user displays that turns developers away from Linux. Would you want support tickets from someone like them?
I also found it hilarious they linked a wiki I’ve been contributing to for years hahaha.
yeah and those games usually dont ship with kernel level anticheat…
Or you are playing games made on a tight budget focusing on the largest userbase: windows (>90% according to Steam hardware survey)
That clearly does not apply for most of the games holding people back from switching to Linux. It’s mostly going to be games like Destiny 2, PUBG, Rainbox Six, Call of Duty, Battlefield, heck probably even Roblox now.
And funnily enough a lot of indie games do support linux, mostly because are build using engines that make it easy. So I personally reject the claim that it’s games made on a tight budget. Those are going to be few and far between.
Suck on that apple
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maybe if valve recompiled tf2 for fucking 64 bit macOS users would use steam more it’s 2023 for fucks sake
Steam still runs on Rosetta2. They just gave up and aren’t even trying anymore, probably thanks to apples hostility to them and no Vulkan
that’s their prerogative but then no one should be surprised when Mac usage slumps
Not surprised. Steam on Linux just works. Click a checkbox in settings to use Proton. Then only way it would be easier is if it would automatically detect Proton and use it. I don’t think it does yet?
It automatically uses Proton for titles that Valve has whitelisted as compatible. To play anything else you need to check a box in the settings. Honestly, it should probably just be checked by default.
Probaby just to deter non tech savy people to blame all the problems on steam without realising it wasn’t made for linux in first place. There may not be a lot but with how popular steam deck is, I won’t be surprised if a lot of people are trying out linux for the first time.
I think enabling steam compatibility for all titles do exactly that?
Hardly surprising, especially with SteamDeck’s popularity. Great news regardless! Steam is really making a difference here.
I would fully switch to linux - I have done some dabbling with it, including setting up a media PC w/ steam on it - but I cannot run any of my business or productivity apps.
Specifically, Autocad, Revit, and VR software do not work. So wahwah
On the same boat, I would gladly change, but most of my collaborators still use software you can only use on windows, I could use VMs or emulators, but it usually breaks my workflow anyway.
