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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 August 2014
Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS 64 bit 0.43% +0.37%
Linux Mint 17 Qiana 64 bit 0.10% +0.01%
Linux 3.10 64 bit 0.08% -0.01%
Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS 0.06% +0.06%
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS 64 bit 0.06% -0.33%
Total: 1.06%
Last Month: 1.11%
My thoughts on it
Nothing special and not surprising really. Our back log of games is growing, but it's not enough to sway a lot of people. Hopefully with games like Borderlands coming to our platform it will strengthen the numbers just a little.
I very much look forward to seeing how Valve position SteamOS on these statistics a month after it's live. Will it be under Linux, or will they give it their own SteamOS section?
I am still highly sceptical of what traction SteamOS will gain, but I imagine it will be slow to begin with. Either that or it will be massive at the start, and then quickly settle down much lower than the initial numbers.
Things to note
A minor point: Distro-hoppers will slightly mess up the statistics, 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 potential market that big? We are still under-represented in my eyes. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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The comments on this article are closed.
lucifertdark Sep 8, 2014
The most annoying thing about this survey is I've been using Steam on Linux since the day they released the first Beta & I still haven't had a single chance to do the survey on Linux, in that time I've had it show 3 times in Windows, the results are going to be way off because of that.
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Quoting: lucifertdarkThe most annoying thing about this survey is I've been using Steam on Linux since the day they released the first Beta & I still haven't had a single chance to do the survey on Linux, in that time I've had it show 3 times in Windows, the results are going to be way off because of that.
How do you come to that conclusion?
I'm not saying the survey is not flawed. It might be (doubt it though).
However, from your numbers/experience there's no way you can conclude it's flawed.
If you're open to it, get your hands on a book/course that covers basic Statistics.
That one might be a good start Introduction to Statistics: Probability (Berkeley)
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1% of *7,000,000*. 7M is generally supposed to be the active Steam player base.
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Quoting: Magevania1% of *7,000,000*. 7M is generally supposed to be the active Steam player base.
Well done captain obvious ;)
We are according to this survey around 1%, so this is how statistics work. Also it's 75 not 7 million ;)
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The steam hardware survey is hardly a reliable source when valve hide the damn thing and don't email them to members and as such I keep missing it.
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Does anyone know if Kubuntu falls under Ubuntu? Just wondering recently installed Ubuntu, but couldn't get past the Unity Bar on my Multi-Monitor Setup so am currently playing with KDE on Kubuntu. Thanks.
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The Steam Survey is seriously flawed.
Why?
There is a huge bust in it which I believe is an indication that those polled either lied or the Survey polling itself is seriously flawed.
Review the Steam Statistics page here: http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/
Windows users account for 95.47% of the Steam Community of 100 million or so. And those Windows users range from Win 7 being the most common to XP being the least common O/S.
Yet when you go over to the Physical CPU usage page : http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/cpus/
We find that the 4 CPU's are used by 43.52% of your users. This percentage would correlate to Apple OSX and Windows users, however OSX users account for less than 5% of the Steam Community and that makes this 43% statistic suspect.
Actually this is impossible.
This is either a lie or someone is distorting the truth.
NONE of the Windows operating systems that are in use in the Steam Community will support more than 2 CPUs. Only Windows Server supports 4 cpus and that operating system is not in use in the community at least according to your statistics.
QUAD CPU's can not be used unless Windows Server is in use. And it is not.
This is not a small issue. It is huge. If folks don't know how many cpu's they use or what operating system that they use then how can they be relied upon to provide accurate information regarding system memory and AIB GPU usage etc., etc., etc?
Basically the Steam Survey is BS. Almost half of the Steam Community doesn't know what they are talking about.
Why?
There is a huge bust in it which I believe is an indication that those polled either lied or the Survey polling itself is seriously flawed.
Review the Steam Statistics page here: http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/
Windows users account for 95.47% of the Steam Community of 100 million or so. And those Windows users range from Win 7 being the most common to XP being the least common O/S.
Yet when you go over to the Physical CPU usage page : http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/cpus/
We find that the 4 CPU's are used by 43.52% of your users. This percentage would correlate to Apple OSX and Windows users, however OSX users account for less than 5% of the Steam Community and that makes this 43% statistic suspect.
Actually this is impossible.
This is either a lie or someone is distorting the truth.
NONE of the Windows operating systems that are in use in the Steam Community will support more than 2 CPUs. Only Windows Server supports 4 cpus and that operating system is not in use in the community at least according to your statistics.
QUAD CPU's can not be used unless Windows Server is in use. And it is not.
This is not a small issue. It is huge. If folks don't know how many cpu's they use or what operating system that they use then how can they be relied upon to provide accurate information regarding system memory and AIB GPU usage etc., etc., etc?
Basically the Steam Survey is BS. Almost half of the Steam Community doesn't know what they are talking about.
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Quoting: ravThe Steam Survey is seriously flawed.
Why?
There is a huge bust in it which I believe is an indication that those polled either lied or the Survey polling itself is seriously flawed.
Review the Steam Statistics page here: http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/
Windows users account for 95.47% of the Steam Community of 100 million or so. And those Windows users range from Win 7 being the most common to XP being the least common O/S.
Yet when you go over to the Physical CPU usage page : http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/cpus/
We find that the 4 CPU's are used by 43.52% of your users. This percentage would correlate to Apple OSX and Windows users, however OSX users account for less than 5% of the Steam Community and that makes this 43% statistic suspect.
Actually this is impossible.
This is either a lie or someone is distorting the truth.
NONE of the Windows operating systems that are in use in the Steam Community will support more than 2 CPUs. Only Windows Server supports 4 cpus and that operating system is not in use in the community at least according to your statistics.
QUAD CPU's can not be used unless Windows Server is in use. And it is not.
This is not a small issue. It is huge. If folks don't know how many cpu's they use or what operating system that they use then how can they be relied upon to provide accurate information regarding system memory and AIB GPU usage etc., etc., etc?
Basically the Steam Survey is BS. Almost half of the Steam Community doesn't know what they are talking about.
My guess is people are seeing CPU and thinking CPU Cores...which of course isn't the same...only a guess though. And you bring up a good point about relying on people's knowledge about the hardware they are using.
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The HW survey is automatic based on the computer configuration. Users can't modify those results.
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