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Update: It seems Valve have adjusted their survey and changed the total, the new figures are

Linux Total: 0.81% + 0.01% (instead of +.02% originally)
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 64 bit 0.20% - 0.04%
Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS 64 bit 0.10% - 0.02%
Linux 64 bit 0.08% + 0.01%
Linux Mint 17.3 Rosa 64 bit 0.07% - 0.02%
Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS 64 bit 0.06% + 0.06%

Original article below:

The latest Steam Hardware Survey is out and for the first time in a while the Linux figure seems to have grown.

Linux total: 0.82% + 0.02% (we are 0.02% away from June's level)
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS 64 bit: 0.21% - 0.03%
Ubuntu 14.04.4 LTS 64 bit: 0.11% - 0.01%
Linux 64 bit: 0.08% + 0.01%
Linux Mint 17.3 Rosa 64 bit: 0.07% - 0.02%
Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS 64 bit: 0.05% + 0.05%

A few things to remember:

It is such a tiny percentage we could be seeing nothing more than statistic anomalies here. Same for any survey that shows a positive/negative change when it's such a small amount. Let's not get carried away over an increase. With that said, it's still great to finally see something positive isn't it!

SteamOS and Steam Big Picture are still not included in the survey and it's a manual survey, so you're not included in it unless you get the pop-up asking you to submit your details.

I actually had the survey this time, so it's not a myth!

In all honesty, the figure is likely around the correct number going by the sales statistics I often see from developers. It doesn't mean Linux isn't worth it though, plenty of developers are selling enough to make it worth porting. Heck, even Rust has sold over 30 thousand copies to Linux gamers.

You may be wondering why I still bother to cover this since nothing really changes! Well, it's another chance to plug our own User Statistics Page. Be sure your profiles are up to date. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Eike Aug 2, 2016
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QuoteIn all honesty, the figure is likely around the correct number going by the sales statistics I often see from developers.

*imaginethumbsupimagehere*
burnall Aug 2, 2016
In general, other platforms have grown much faster. Except minor exception for ox x this time. I'm sorry but big publishers won't get convinced by those numbers. And here we go again, maybe we will gain another 0.5% in 10 years.
dmantione Aug 2, 2016
Next month will be interresting. Why? Because we believe that the Steam survey is more likely to pop up on new installations. With Microsoft excersizing strong pressure over the last months on people to upgrade, it is likely the survey has been biased towards Windows 10 during the last months. The fact that Steam reports a much stronger market share for Windows 10 than web based OS statistics websites could also be an indication for this.

Because the free Win10 upgrade is no longer available, August should be a lot less biased towards Win10, and other operating systems might show a growth because of that.

What is again interresting this month is the Netmarketshare report, which puts Linux at 2.33% this month:

https://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=9&qpcustomb=0&qpsp=187&qpnp=24&qptimeframe=M

Netmarketshare is showing a strong growth for Linux during the past months. While the Linux their Linux share always a variance of up to 0.3%, we are now seeing growth well beyond that, and the fact that it is sustained for months now makes it unlikely to be noise.
Eike Aug 2, 2016
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Quoting: burnallIn general, other platforms have grown much faster. Except minor exception for ox x this time.

The percentage of Linux on Steam is about the same for quite some time now, while Steam user count is growing fast. So obviously, Linux and Windows (didn't look at Mac) are growing with the same pace on Steam.

Quoting: burnallI'm sorry but big publishers won't get convinced by those numbers.

... but I fear you're right here.


Last edited by Eike on 2 August 2016 at 9:48 am UTC
Keyrock Aug 2, 2016
In a related story, I got the survey for the first time in about a year yesterday. It's probably just coincidence that it happened within a week of me switching distros (from Xubuntu to Fedora) for the first time in several years.
lucifertdark Aug 2, 2016
Another month where I didn't get the survey, they really need to do it once every couple of months with every single steam user included, then we'd see how "small" the Linux community really is.
TacoDeBoss Aug 2, 2016
Yeah, it's pretty disappointing. I would move back to Windows and give up the fight, but since I've started getting into programming, that's not an option. Not about to go from using Gedit and make to edit and run code for FREE to trying to pirate Visual Studio because you have to be a millionaire to buy it.

Not to mention, it'd make life so boring to not do sudo apt update && sudo apt dist-upgrade every day. I love the terminal.
Eike Aug 2, 2016
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Quoting: TacoDeBossYeah, it's pretty disappointing. I would move back to Windows and give up the fight, but since I've started getting into programming, that's not an option. Not about to go from using Gedit and make to edit and run code for FREE to trying to pirate Visual Studio because you have to be a millionaire to buy it.

I will not tell you there's a free edition of Visual Studio - or that VS is the best IDE I've ever tried.
No, I won't, because I want you to use Linux!
Fornax Aug 2, 2016
I too got the survey yesterday! First time this year
TacoDeBoss Aug 2, 2016
Quoting: EikeI will not tell you there's a free edition of Visual Studio - or that VS is the best IDE I've ever tried.
No, I won't, because I want you to use Linux!

Not sure it would work with what I'm doing anyway. I've been editing Half-Life 1's code as practice. There's a Half-Life 1 mod called Shaft that I'm very interested in, and I've been in contact with the mod's head programmer. - it runs on Xash3D which works on Linux but the code is Windows only and it uses a windows-only engine expansion called Spirit of Half-Life.
I'm trying to learn some programming so when the mod comes out, I *might* be able to port it to Linux, since they're open-sourcing the code and maps.

Last I checked, HL1 code only compiles on VC 6.0 which was a pain to get working last time I tried.

Not that this wasn't a pain either. Half-Life 1 and Xash3D are 32-bit code meaning I have to chroot into a 32-bit Debian partition if I want to compile either.

End rant.


Last edited by TacoDeBoss on 2 August 2016 at 10:27 am UTC
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