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Steam's hardware survey now shows many distro's

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So the Steam Hardware Survey got updated again, this time they are now including lots of Linux distro's so we can see just how popular they are!

It's good to see see them do it, but we really need a Linux only category like they have for Mac.
image
It basically looks like they have expanded their full results and taken some out of the "Other" category.

With this new data it shows Linux as have a total market share on Steam of around 2.45% when comparing that to the also now more complete Mac stats at around 3.27% that puts us around 0.8% away from Mac users.

Bear in mind though that the surveys don't count every user, it's a % of the total user base. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Editorial, Steam
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Cheeseness Mar 18, 2013
Quoting: GuestWow, looking pretty good so far. I'd imaging that these numbers will keep increasing slowly month by month, and it'll be really interesting to see where they go. If I'm hopeful, I'd imagine they will grow very slowly each month, with a slight bump whenever a high profile game is released on Linux.

Hey Cheese, what do you think about a Steam user share visualization for Linux? It might be interesting to watch from here on out.
Actually, when they first included Linux stats, I started manually pulling the data in the hopes that I'd be able to do something with it later. I haven't been very diligent with that, though it's still on my todo list :)


Quoting: ArnaudHow can they count OpenSUSE user ? OpenSUSE is not in the UserAgent !
If you find your Steam install, and then open steam.sh, you can find the methods that Steam uses to detect distros starting at around line 124.
Cheeseness Mar 19, 2013
Quoting: GuestQuote from CheesenessActually, when they first included Linux stats, I started manually pulling the data in the hopes that I'd be able to do something with it later. I haven't been very diligent with that, though it's still on my todo list
Well to be fair, there wasn't a lot of data to go by until now. With the latest survey, we finally have a good idea of what's going on. It would be cool to see things such as 32 vs 64 bit adoption over time, distribution usage over time, etc. Now that we can actually see a bit more data.
For sure. The first few months' worth of data is definitely interesting in its own right though.
tweakedenigma Mar 19, 2013
Good news indeed. If we can get by OSX (and it looks like we will), I suspect we will see a lot more developers considering Linux.
Frank Arne Mar 20, 2013
It's well known fact that especially during the last two years Ubuntu, mostly because Unity, has lost quite a lot of friends to Linux Mint and some other distributions too (like Mageia). It's very questionable is Ubuntu even the most popular Linux among users today. And surely majority of those Linux users are not using Ubuntu daily, many of us not at all.
tweakedenigma Mar 20, 2013
Quoting: Frank ArneIt's well known fact that especially during the last two years Ubuntu, mostly because Unity, has lost quite a lot of friends to Linux Mint and some other distributions too (like Mageia). It's very questionable is Ubuntu even the most popular Linux among users today. And surely majority of those Linux users are not using Ubuntu daily, many of us not at all.

I know quite a few Linux users and the Majority probably ~70% are running some flavour of Ubuntu. Granted there has been a vocal minority that have moved on (and really that's the great thing about Linux, the fact we can do that). 

Looking just at the Steam Numbers seem to indicate that is the case. Even if Ubuntu is the Primary target, it does work on Mint, Arch, Suse and Fedora and they are no where near the Ubuntu number.
Anonymous Mar 20, 2013
Quoting: tweakedenigmaQuote from Frank ArneIt's well known fact that especially during the last two years Ubuntu, mostly because Unity, has lost quite a lot of friends to Linux Mint and some other distributions too (like Mageia). It's very questionable is Ubuntu even the most popular Linux among users today. And surely majority of those Linux users are not using Ubuntu daily, many of us not at all.

I know quite a few Linux users and the Majority probably ~70% are running some flavour of Ubuntu. Granted there has been a vocal minority that have moved on (and really that's the great thing about Linux, the fact we can do that). 

Looking just at the Steam Numbers seem to indicate that is the case. Even if Ubuntu is the Primary target, it does work on Mint, Arch, Suse and Fedora and they are no where near the Ubuntu number.
Arnaud Mar 20, 2013
Quoting: tweakedenigmaQuote from Frank ArneIt's well known fact that especially during the last two years Ubuntu, mostly because Unity, has lost quite a lot of friends to Linux Mint and some other distributions too (like Mageia). It's very questionable is Ubuntu even the most popular Linux among users today. And surely majority of those Linux users are not using Ubuntu daily, many of us not at all.

I know quite a few Linux users and the Majority probably ~70% are running some flavour of Ubuntu. Granted there has been a vocal minority that have moved on (and really that's the great thing about Linux, the fact we can do that). 

Looking just at the Steam Numbers seem to indicate that is the case. Even if Ubuntu is the Primary target, it does work on Mint, Arch, Suse and Fedora and they are no where near the Ubuntu number.
In fact, Steam was built for Ubuntu and is available in the official repository.
For OpenSUSE for instance, you have to install the repository manually or by using 1-Click.

Sure There are more ubunteros than OpenSUSE of Fedora users. But the steam comparison is not fair. I would be glad to see stats from Desura for instance.

The best stats are from wikimedia : Ubuntu sers are roughly 40% of the total Linux users, which seems more accurate.
tweakedenigma Mar 20, 2013
QuoteSure There are more ubunteros than OpenSUSE of Fedora users. But the steam comparison is not fair. I would be glad to see stats from Desura for instance.

The best stats are from wikimedia : Ubuntu sers are roughly 40% of the total Linux users, which seems more accurate.

Agreed and I am not trying to say Ubuntu is 70% (that was just people I know) of the market really. Just that this mass exodus people keep talking about doesn't appear to exist. If it did, I suspect at least one of the other Distros would be close as installing Steam on Other Distro's isn't hard.
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