Currently Steam Big Picture mode and SteamOS don't get a hardware survey, so even if millions of people pick up a Steam Machine we won't currently see any changes in the Steam Hardware Survey, but that could change in future.
Not exactly big news, as we already knew they didn't survey them, but we didn't know why. It turns out the code to do it just isn't there at the moment.
In the comments of a bug report I commented on, Drew Bliss said this about my feature request comment:
Source
Good to see it's a feature just not being in there currently, rather than them just not doing it.
I still think it would be better if they just did it all automatically, then we would have a much clearer picture. As long as there was an opt-out, it wouldn't be too big a security concern for people, at least not for me anyway. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Not exactly big news, as we already knew they didn't survey them, but we didn't know why. It turns out the code to do it just isn't there at the moment.
In the comments of a bug report I commented on, Drew Bliss said this about my feature request comment:
QuoteI meant "not intended to work" in the sense that the work hasn't been done to hook it up so this isn't a bug where code isn't working as intended. Having survey information would be valuable and eventually that'll get added.
Source
Good to see it's a feature just not being in there currently, rather than them just not doing it.
I still think it would be better if they just did it all automatically, then we would have a much clearer picture. As long as there was an opt-out, it wouldn't be too big a security concern for people, at least not for me anyway. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Quoting: BeamboomI read this as just a clear indication that those numbers are very, very low. Else they'd be all over that task for obvious marketing reasons.
I agree although if Valve did anything obvious we would have had Half-Life Episode 34 by now.....
They will have an uphill battle, not least to articles like that daft one on Ars Technica....
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Quoting: BeamboomI read this as just a clear indication that those numbers are very, very low. Else they'd be all over that task for obvious marketing reasons.
You nailed it.
That's the main reason why I think Valve's strategy of not making too much noisy about "steam machines" or "steamOS" makes sense right now.
Take STEAM as an example. What do you think would've happened if they made a huge market campaign behind the steam launch? If you remember steam first steps you know what I'm talking about... it was slow, it took performance from your games (valve games) and no benefit AT ALL could be foreseeing at that time.
Valve just kept developing Steam until it today and look at it now...
I guess the strat with SteamOS and SteamBox will follow some similar pattern.
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Quoting: amonobeax...Agree mostly with your posts. Nicely formulated.
Valve just kept developing Steam until it today and look at it now...
I also think it's a similar deal with Vulkan; It's definitely not going to be a life saviour, quickly changing the Linux gaming scene. Having such high hopes for it will only cause disappointment. Linux gaming is still not quite hatching but we are seeing many steps towards it.
Actually, scepticism towards Windows 10 and it's bad reputation might be the single most positively influential factor in Linux gaming in this year. Many things are slowly and independently contributing to the platform growth. Vulkan, SteamOS & Machines, Feral & Aspyr, UE, Unity & others are examples. Alone, none of them matters much, but together and given time, things might change nicely.
Last edited by khalismur on 7 February 2016 at 1:12 pm UTC
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Mountain Man Feb 7, 2016
I guarantee that Valve knows exactly how many people are using Linux and SteamOS. They need to be able to track that information to make sure the right developers get paid, so I've never been entirely clear on the point of the hardware survey.
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Quoting: Mountain ManI guarantee that Valve knows exactly how many people are using Linux and SteamOS. They need to be able to track that information to make sure the right developers get paid, so I've never been entirely clear on the point of the hardware survey.It is a HARDWARE survey. That is the point of it. Unfortunately, it also includes software stats, which I believe are not only useless, but harmful.
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LinuxGamesTV Feb 7, 2016
Quoting: adolsonQuoting: Mountain ManI guarantee that Valve knows exactly how many people are using Linux and SteamOS. They need to be able to track that information to make sure the right developers get paid, so I've never been entirely clear on the point of the hardware survey.It is a HARDWARE survey. That is the point of it. Unfortunately, it also includes software stats, which I believe are not only useless, but harmful.
Yes and it's a survey not a statistics.
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Quoting: Mountain ManI guarantee that Valve knows exactly how many people are using Linux and SteamOS. They need to be able to track that information to make sure the right developers get paid, so I've never been entirely clear on the point of the hardware survey.
It's either another way to collect data or a long term study on the effect of sharing some statistics about hardware, or who knows? This video Steam Dev Days 2014 - Data to Drive Decision-Making gives some insight on how we are guinea pigs for Valve ;)
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I bet there are not more than 100 machines out there actually running SteamOS in BPM. Ye, I'm pesimist :-).
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Kallestofeles Feb 8, 2016
Quoting: khalismurActually, scepticism towards Windows 10 and it's bad reputation might be the single most positively influential factor in Linux gaming in this year.I agree.
Fun side-fact - when it was revealed that Windows7 machines, running automatic updates, will receive Windows10 at a random patching date, even my gf started to ask around for the alternatives. :)
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Quoting: BdMdesigNYes and it's a survey not a statistics.Hmmm you might have definitions mixed up. The two are different entities.
Statistics is a mathematical tool that helps understand, organize, present, deal and work with data sets.
A survey is a method of gathering data sets. On the vast majority of cases, the data collected from a survey is analysed with statistics.
Steam HW surveys are just collecting data and everything they do is then analysed with statistics. It's not like it's one or the other. Also, anyone with knowledge of statistics and surveys knows how representative they can be only if you also know how good the average sample represents the whole population. We don't know this, there is speculation that it targets more Windows users. I don't believe Steam would make this big mistake and be more stupid than people who come up with such assumptions. It's in their own interest to have a good sample lol.
TLDR? It is a survey and it is statistics. The only question we can't answer is how representative the sample is.
Quoting: KallestofelesYes, some people I know also got interested in Linux after Windows 10. At the end, we have to thank Microsoft :-)Quoting: khalismurActually, scepticism towards Windows 10 and it's bad reputation might be the single most positively influential factor in Linux gaming in this year.I agree.
Fun side-fact - when it was revealed that Windows7 machines, running automatic updates, will receive Windows10 at a random patching date, even my gf started to ask around for the alternatives. :)
Last edited by khalismur on 8 February 2016 at 8:25 am UTC
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