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Steam Hardware Survey For October 2014, Linux Rises Again (UPDATED)

By - | Views: 18,490
UPDATE: It seems Valve adjusted the survey after both we and Phoronix covered it, the actual percentage is 1.12%, so we actually dropped by a few % this month.

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 October 2014
Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS 64 bit 0.52% +0.09%
Linux Mint 17 Qiana 64 bit 0.13% +0.03%
Linux 3.10 64 bit 0.10% +0.02%
Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS 0.08% +0.02%

Total: 1.18% + 0.02%
Last Month: 1.16%

My thoughts on it

It seems that - although small - Linux usage has been seeing an increase among Steam users. This could be attributed to a number of factors, including the much bigger and better range in games we're seeing.

Just for comparison, the figure for overall Linux usage this time last year was 1.06%.

Things to note

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 remember it is a survey, so it won't ask every single one of you to do it. It would only be truly accurate if it did it behind the scenes, but that's not what a survey is for this is just to get a general idea.

The stats are also quite different to our own survey. For example, Steam states that around 20% of Linux users use AMD CPUs, while our own survey puts that number closer to 30%. You can compare these stats yourself to see some discrepancies and take into account that neither survey is perfect.

Final Note: Look at it this way, Steam has around 100 million active users, 1% of 100 million is about 1,000,000 (1 million) people. What developer wouldn't want to hook into a market that big?

Final, Final Note

This monthly article used to be done by Liam. It's a pretty important thing to have because it gives us an idea of the growth of Linux gaming. Unfortunately, I have a few other articles which I take care of here so it would be nice to get a volunteer from the GOL community to do this. It is just once a month and very quick to do. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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About the author -
After many years of floating through space on the back of a missile, following a successful career in beating people up for not playing Sega Saturn, the missile returned to earth. Upon returning, I discovered to my dismay that the once great console had been discontinued and Sega had abandoned the fight to dominate the world through 32-bit graphical capabilities.

After spending some years breaking breeze blocks with my head for money and being mocked by strangers, I have found a new purpose: to beat up people for not playing on Linux.
See more from me
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23 comments
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Segata Sanshiro Nov 1, 2014
Quoting: MetallinatusWell, I am really trying to help at least a little bit with the articles here.... so I can try to make the next ones if you want me :)

Sure :). Message me closer to the end of the month and we'll sort it out.
Metallinatus Nov 1, 2014
Ok. I will do that :D
edo Nov 1, 2014
Quoting: mastereduManjaro is Arch. As Linux Mint is Ubuntu. And NO, Ubuntu is NOT Debian.

Manjaro is based on arch, linux mint is based on ubuntu, and yes, ubuntu is not debian, is based on debian. But I wonder how is this related to was I was talking about.

Quoting: Segata SanshiroIf you add together the distros they list, it comes to 0.83%, so the remaining 0.35% must be "other". That seems to fit our own results as well.

That makes a lot of sense, thanks for the info, but they should add that "Other" category, so we could see if it grows and how it behaves.
Xpander Nov 1, 2014
the survey is clearly wrong.
every time i start up steam in wine i get this survey...

and i have counted this... this year i have gotten the survey 6 times under wine steam and 1 time under linux native.

also whats worth to note.. 2 of those times under wine i had the survey right after i reinstalled steam, it didnt pop up before reinstall.. but right after i opened it after reinstall it asked for survey.

so my bet is that those who are distro hoppers are getting survey more. those under windows seem to get also more and we single linux distro users get it super rarely
scaine Nov 2, 2014
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Quoting: Xpanderso my bet is that those who are distro hoppers are getting survey more. those under windows seem to get also more and we single linux distro users get it super rarely

I'm not buying into conspiracy theories here, but I agree - I've had the survey twice in 18 months under Ubuntu, but when I was on Windows it would pop up every other month or so. And I think I do more gaming now than I did then too!

Of course, if I was buying into conspiracy theories, I'd suggest that Valve's marketing for Steam Machines will have more impact if, after 3 months of their launch, they've doubled or trebled the market share...
pd12 Nov 2, 2014
wow, after a year or 2 I've finally gotten the Steam hardware survey again! This time it was when I reinstalled Steam on my HTPC/Steambox after it spat out some cannot find libsteam.so or steamui.so error.
I think it usually just does it when you reinstall steam or something. (Most if not all of the times I've gotten the survey was then).
Sn3ipen Nov 2, 2014
QuoteLinux 3.10 64 bit 0.10% +0.02%
I wonder if this is Steam OS since it is running Linux 3.10?
Xpander Nov 2, 2014
Quoting: Sn3ipen
QuoteLinux 3.10 64 bit 0.10% +0.02%
I wonder if this is Steam OS since it is running Linux 3.10?

no its not.. its arch and other distros that dont have LSB package installed by default

even if the kernels are newer they still report Linux 3.10
Guest Nov 2, 2014
Linux is rising but a bit slowly.But 2015 will be an interesting year for linux, i can't wait.
Mi pen Nov 5, 2014
Well i'm an Ubuntu Studio fan and can switch of the Low latency driver when I switch on. Its XFCE based as I just like the simple ease of use, that the old XFCE comes with, and it looks nice black and blue.

So use both FOSS (can be easy to set up dual screen for doing non gaming stuff) and FGLRX updates proprietary divers for my ATI card.

Its not performance that makes me avoid FOSS for gaming...its reliability and actually getting the games to work or be stable.
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