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Steam's November Hardware Survey - Linux Still Mostly Holding Itself Up

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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 and make sure you know not to use it as a hard figure.

Linux results for November 2013
Ubuntu 13.10 64 bit 0.36% +0.21%
Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS 64 bit 0.17% -0.01%
Ubuntu 13.04 64 bit 0.11% -0.24%
Linux 64 bit 0.10% 0.00%
Linux Mint 15 Olivia 64 bit 0.10% -0.01%
Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS 0.07% -0.01%
Ubuntu 13.10 0.07% +0.07%

Total: 0.98%
Last Month: 1.06%

My thoughts on it
A drop of 0.08% which isn't really anything and can be down to statistical errors so I wouldn't go worrying about it. I still think we will see it rise quite a lot once the Steam Machines come out. I was actually counted this time around too, amazing.

Things to note
The Other category may contain a few of the smaller Linux distro's like Fedora, Gentoo and Arch for example. 

Other 0.66% 0.00%

Especially when before the main stats did contain quite a few more Linux distro's it's safe to assume some of the % is Linux as well.

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. Personally I am still yet to see it under Linux so it's not counting me that's for sure and I am logged in every day!

Also to note is that Linux is apparently only sitting at around 1.28% of the worldwide desktop share anyway according to Net Applications. Their reporting should also be taken lightly too since it's all using web-based counters.

Lastly 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. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Editorial, Steam
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About the author -
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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.
See more from me
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Ezekiel000 Dec 2, 2013
I was part of the survey this time, unfortunately when I was logged into steam running on wine. But I had a look at the information sent and it does include wine version number.
Anonymous Dec 2, 2013
I had the same, logged into Steam under wine and got 7 !!!! survey questions.. every time i logged into some wine versions.. it makes me crazy...
steam under wine is still recognized as windows :/
Mike Lothian Dec 2, 2013
I notice I only get the survey on Linux when I'm not using the beta client - I usually do use the betas for all the latest fixes
DrMcCoy Dec 2, 2013
Wait, who doesn't use the beta?!? O_o
Aaron Dec 2, 2013
What happens to the HW survey part if someone is hooked up to a vidock on their laptop? Does the survey explode?
richie442 Dec 2, 2013
Come oon Valve, no survey again?...
JW Dec 2, 2013
I've been declining the survey using wine for awhile, cause it will say I am using windows =)
asdf Dec 2, 2013
Yeah.. the survey must be broken. I got survey popups two times in the last 3 months with the steam linux beta client. And I never got a survey question in windows for over a year.
Chirs Dec 2, 2013
Let's hope it picks up next year!
Renzatic Dec 2, 2013
Quoting: Quote from asdfYeah.. the survey must be broken. I got survey popups two times in the last 3 months with the steam linux beta client. And I never got a survey question in windows for over a year.

It's the opposite for me. I've been using Linux for roughly 4-5 months now, and I've yet to see the survey pop up.

Then again, I've been using Steam since Half-Life 2 came out all those years ago, and I've only seen it pop up in Windows once or twice in all that time. Maybe Valve just doesn't like me or something...
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