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Linux overall market-share percentage falls on Steam in October

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You know the drill by now, it's up and down all the time and I don't think we should really pay much attention to the Steam Hardware Survey any more, regardless of it going up or down. A better measure is likely to keep talking to developers, and see how their actual sales are doing on Linux.

Anyway, for those who are still interested:
Linux Total: 0.89% - 0.04%
Ubuntu 16.04.1 LTS 64 bit 0.33% - 0.01%
Linux 64 bit 0.10% 0.00%
Linux Mint 18 Sarah 64 bit 0.09% + 0.01%
Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS 64 bit 0.05% - 0.01%

Even though Valve aren't currently counting anyone in Big Picture or SteamOS, I doubt it would change anything much. Our own survey suggests SteamOS use is pretty low (26 out of 1645 who answered it).

These results may change tomorrow or the day after, as it seems Valve sometimes adjust them a day or so after they put out the results, like we saw last month, and that's not the only time they have done that.

Make of it what you will. I'm not going to put the blame anywhere, as no one really knows apart from Valve, and apparently I'm always wrong according to a few people who think they know better.

What I will say, is don't get disheartened by figures like this, we can mostly ignore it until the change is much bigger. That goes for when it rises too. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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orochi_kyo Nov 2, 2016
Quoting: Alm888
Quoting: orochikyo...there is a reason ... that actually any Mac OS doesnt have a terminal since 10 years ago.

To be honest, it doesn't look like the absense of the Terminal helped MacOS become "Gamers' Heaven" in any way. The same old 3,5%...

I dont think I have to explain why MAC is still 3.5%, their marketing turn around the fact that not anyone can have a IMAC, or IPHONE or Ipad, its an elitist marketing towards people who like to make others to known they have money, so MAC will be never a product for the masses. Still MacOS is still way easy to use than Linux.
PublicNuisance Nov 2, 2016
Quoting: orochikyo
Quoting: Alm888
Quoting: orochikyo...there is a reason ... that actually any Mac OS doesnt have a terminal since 10 years ago.

To be honest, it doesn't look like the absense of the Terminal helped MacOS become "Gamers' Heaven" in any way. The same old 3,5%...

I dont think I have to explain why MAC is still 3.5%, their marketing turn around the fact that not anyone can have a IMAC, or IPHONE or Ipad, its an elitist marketing towards people who like to make others to known they have money, so MAC will be never a product for the masses. Still MacOS is still way easy to use than Linux.

I worked for a company who was contracted by Apple to do troubleshooting over the phone so I used OS X daily for a year and I don't know if I would say it is easier to use. I'm not calling it hard at all but at the same time there is so little you can do with OS X from a customization or troubleshooting standpoint that it's kind of like baby's first OS. If you have so little power in the OS you use and have so little that can break is it really easier ?
orochi_kyo Nov 2, 2016
I can assure than 99% of the "PC Gamers" uses their gaming computers for other stuff, so making someone a Linux user, will make him for sure a linux gamer in matter of time.
People said that actually I dont have to install new stuff aside from what the distro have already installed. Sadly, as it sound practical, it doesnt happened to me, for example, Libre Office, I dont know why I have to update all the distro to get the last version of Libre Office and Firefox, I would like to update those softwares without putting a long ass command in the terminal, to make linux to see the new repository and then being available to download it.
Debian install packages are bad too, they always ask me for dependencies that I cant install from Synaptic. Krita is another example, most distros have a way old version of Krita in their main repositories, for the new one, you have to do the same, go to krita website, copying a long command and then doing two more commands on the terminal.
Funny thing is PlayonLinux makes way easier to install windows software on linux, than installing or updating native linux software.
Dont get me wrong, love linux, but I cant see some people, looking on internet, copying and pasting commands on the terminal, just to update those softwares or install new. W10 store and Appstore are way easier to use.
Now, what if Libre Office, firefox and many other software can be distributed and updated throw Steam on Linux?, wow, that could be more practical even than synaptic. Making Linux easier for users is assuring new linux gamers in the future.
kyrios Nov 2, 2016
Quoting: MaCroX95Speaking about that, we must take into account that total number of PCs in the world is probably rising more than it ever has, every person in the family in the western world probably owns their own PC at least a laptop and if we take into account that number of Windows PC is increasing, number of Linux PCs has been increasing at the higher rate since we've gained some marketshare (more than ever actually, now we are actually at about stable 2% which is not a small number, considering that there are 3+ billions of working PCs out there...)
The budget of the families isn't expandable and unlike a decade ago most people also buy smartphones, tablets, ... The money spent on these devices is probably money that is not spent in renewing/purchasing new computers. Also with such devices that can be used for leisures, browsing the web, sending mails, e-commerce, e-banking, etc... it is less important to have a computer (my sister in law resigned her fixed internet when her laptop died a year ago... she now only use her smartphone with mobile data at home and use her office computer when she really needs one).
According to Gartner, PC sales declined for eight consecutive quarters
Zelox Nov 2, 2016
I changed my destro from Arch to Manjaro, and I finlay got a survey from steam.
Also if they dont count in Steam os in the survey, why would they count other unsupported destros like fedor, arch, manjaro and debian and os on.


Quoting: orochikyoNow, what if Libre Office, firefox and many other software can be distributed and updated throw Steam on Linux?, wow, that could be more practical even than synaptic. Making Linux easier for users is assuring new linux gamers in the future.

I think this is what snapp packages are aiming for, this is a bit off topic but check it out. Its in a very very early stage at the moment, but the goal is to make it available for all linux destros and it should be something like arch AUR.


Last edited by Zelox on 2 November 2016 at 8:12 pm UTC
tmtvl Nov 2, 2016
For anyone who is even remotely interested in snaps, Linux Unplugged had a segment on it a while back, it's really good, check it out.
Liam Dawe Nov 2, 2016
Quoting: orochikyo"Make of it what you will. I'm not going to put the blame anywhere, as no one really knows apart from Valve, and apparently I'm always wrong according to a few people who think they know better."

Without access to Steam player database, your statements are just an opinion as those "who think they know better" are opinions too. You sound kinda butthurt at that moment, like you like to blame Valve and everyone should be agree with that, there are no one to blame but the same linux distros developers that makes things more complicated that it supposed to be.
That made me chuckle, "butthurt" is one of the dumbest sayings I've ever heard. Who said I was blaming Valve or anyone? No one knows, which is my point.
Philadelphus Nov 2, 2016
Quoting: orochikyoa reason that actually any Mac OS doesnt have a terminal since 10 years ago.
I'm pretty sure OS X does have a terminal (it's just not really advertised), given that professional astronomy (my field) uses about 50-50 Mac and Linux and pretty much everything in astronomy requires liberal use of the command line. :) That's what got me into using Linux after growing up with Windows only, actually.
Liam Dawe Nov 2, 2016
Quoting: Crystal DaggerA bit old, but worth reading: http://www.pcworld.com/article/3045249/linux/linux-gaming-is-much-healthier-than-steams-hardware-survey-implies.html
Just to point out again, they only wrote that because I grilled the author of the original piece on Twitter about how inaccurate his previous piece was ;), see his note at the bottom linking to us :D
SlithyTove Nov 2, 2016
Quoting: reaVerThe hardware survey is probably a little iffy. Because Linux users tend to keep their PCs running (and steam too) so they never get presented with a survey.

I've often wondered what the criteria is for getting a Steam survey.

I was pretty confused about what a "Steam survey" even was when I first saw it mentioned on the site.

I've been using Steam practically since inception (I bought Half Life 2 on it on release day). I have never once seen this survey.

If frequency of logins matters that could explain it. I think I reboot maybe once every couple of months basically just for major patches that require it.
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