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Steam Hardware Survey For June 2014, Linux Is On The Rise

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Here is the latest instalment of Steam's Hardware Survey, as usual we do our monthly thing and compare it and talk about it to make sure you know not to use it as a hard figure.

Linux results for June 2014
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 64 bit 0.48% +0.06%
Linux 3.10 64 bit 0.09% +0.01%
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 0.08% +0.01%
Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS 64 bit 0.07% -0.01%
Linux Mint 17 Qiana 64 bit 0.07% +0.07%
Linux Mint 16 Petra 64 bit 0.05% -0.03%

Total: 1.20%
Last Month: 1.13%

My thoughts on it
Ubuntu is still king then I see with no other distro even coming close to knocking them off. I will be extremely surprised if that ever changes too.

It's nice to see an increase even something as small as 0.07%. I am still hoping games like Counter Strike: Global Offensive and the SteamOS Steam Machines will help it rise.

Things to note
Distro-hoppers will mess up the statistics as well, Linux users are far more likely to switch between different distributions than say a Windows user due to how many we have.

Just be aware these results will probably not be that accurate as we don't know how they do their percentage results, they could be rounding up, rounding down or truncating the percentages. So a 0.5% could actually be nearly 0.6% as it could be 0.59% but they could do no rounding and simply truncate it.

Also it won't be every Steam user (it's a survey not a full statistic), so it can be as simple as not actually showing the survey to many Linux people.
Let's face it we know they don't survey 100% of their user base, only a small fraction of it, so bear that in mind as well.

Linux users typically shy away from any form of DRM, so you can bet there is a large bunch of Linux users who just simply refuse to use Steam.

Final Note: Look at it this way, Steam has around 75 million active users, 1% of 75 million is about 750,000 people. What developer wouldn't want to hook into a market that big? We are still under-represented in my eyes but lets not over-state it as developers won't see even close to that many sales just yet from us. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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wolfyrion Jul 4, 2014
Windows 7 64 bit
49.41%
-1.12%

Windows 8.1 64 bit
16.19%
+0.85%

People dont even bother to switch to another OS for the sake of another OS.
Actually what most people doing is using their OS as a launcher.

I have a friend that is fanatic with Battlefied 4 he has 2 icons only on his desktop Firefox and BF4 nothing else is installed.
People are going to switch to Linux if and only one AAA Game is performing better than Windows and is a must have game at that time. Call it Battlefield 6 , CoD6, Fifa 2017 etc.

I predict a sabotage from Valve :P

Lets say they release Serious Sam 4 or Half-Life 3(cough) --- the game is crashing and freezing in windows but is performing amazing in Linux. Windows Users are frustrated from Valve.....
Valve responds about crashing & freezes on windows "Get a real OS switch to Linux"
Beamboom Jul 4, 2014
"Linux users typically shy away from any form of DRM, so you can bet there is a large bunch of Linux users who just simply refuse to use Steam."
I don't see how this is of any relevance to anything since the topic here is Linux share of Steam users.
To put it this way; There's plenty of Windows users out there who don't use Steam too - but that's just as irrelevant.
Xseba360 Jul 4, 2014
Haven't received a survey for a long long time. Pressed 'No, Thanks' yesterday :D Why? I decided to play Assetto Corsa on windows. Such luck :D
Areso Jul 4, 2014
Quoting: wolfyrion...
Lets say they release Serious Sam 4 or Half-Life 3(cough) --- the game is crashing and freezing in windows but is performing amazing in Linux. Windows Users are frustrated from Valve.....
Valve responds about crashing & freezes on windows "Get a real OS switch to Linux"
You made my day!
Sadly, this is real only in parallel universe (yet).
LinuxGamesTV Jul 4, 2014
Quoting: oldrocker99+1 for a survey. I've seen people complaining about certain games, which run fine for me, not running for them (and they've got a GTX780, and I have a 650ti).

+1
Segata Sanshiro Jul 4, 2014
Quoting: Beamboom"Linux users typically shy away from any form of DRM, so you can bet there is a large bunch of Linux users who just simply refuse to use Steam."
I don't see how this is of any relevance to anything since the topic here is Linux share of Steam users.
To put it this way; There's plenty of Windows users out there who don't use Steam too - but that's just as irrelevant.

Well, a GOL survey would let us find out if that's the case since it would survey all GOL users, not just Steam users :)
Cimeryd Jul 5, 2014
Article mentions that the survey didn't go out to everyone so we may have more than 1.20%...that can easily go the other way too. In my experience, Linux users are more passionate about their OS, and while "A survey? No thanks, stop wasting my time." is a common answer, I have no problem imagining more people than myself say "Survey? Hell yeah, Linux users REPRESENT!"

About bundling Linux with hardware, that could ruin some twat's school year.

Good to see the arrows pointing upwards. Even a minor percentage shift means a lot of users. If we do a survey, it would be fun to see who used Linux before and recently started gaming, and who played games before and recently switched to Linux for it. In other words, where are the new users coming from?
Hamish Jul 5, 2014
Quoting: CimerydIf we do a survey, it would be fun to see who used Linux before and recently started gaming, and who played games before and recently switched to Linux for it.

Or those of us who have used Linux and played games on it for quite some time now - we do exist you know. I do accept that we are less interesting from a population change point of view, however.
Ilya Jul 11, 2014
Quoting: oldrocker99+1 for a survey. I've seen people complaining about certain games, which run fine for me, not running for them (and they've got a GTX780, and I have a 650ti).
High five, I run a 650ti as well and I've never had trouble with any game.
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