As it turns out, the Linux market share reported in the hardware survey for September was higher than initially reported.
Writing on Twitter, Valve's Pierre-Loup Griffais said this:
Just fixed a small rounding error in the HW survey that was affecting reported Linux usage. Distributions with less than a handful of users weren't getting factored into the total percentage. Numbers for September have just been updated: https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/
With those fresh numbers, this means the Linux share for September was actually 0.78% not 0.71%. The recent figures now also show Windows dropping down to 96.29%. While that's a relatively small addition, it's still good to have it be more accurate.
I've updated our dedicated page tracking it, which shows that Linux is now hitting a 16 month high in terms of Steam market share. I don't think the relevance of that can be overstated, considering another 0.15% would put us back to a level we were at in September of 2016. Although, we would have a lot more users considering the ever-increasing growth of Steam.
One thing to be clear on though, is that we have no idea how long this error has been around. Meaning it could have affected months or years worth of data.
This isn't the first time there's been a flaw in the survey, like the time Valve was essentially over-counting cyber cafe customers.
Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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Eike 7 Oct 2018
The "survey" file (which indicates the date the survey was last supposedly run) seems to think that three of the different computers running various versions of Ubuntu in our house and used by different people have all had the survey in the last twelve months, when in reality, none of us have... That would be Valve Software claiming to query me, when it has not in fact done so.
I don't know anything about a Steam survey file... What does it say; where do I find it? I guess it's undocumented (IMHO the biggest problem about the Steam survey)?
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The "survey" file (which indicates the date the survey was last supposedly run) seems to think that three of the different computers running various versions of Ubuntu in our house and used by different people have all had the survey in the last twelve months, when in reality, none of us have... That would be Valve Software claiming to query me, when it has not in fact done so.I too had no idea this existed. That raises whole shitloads of questions. For instance, does Steam look at the survey file before it decides to give you the survey? So like, if it shows a recent survey in that file it won't give you one? Or conversely, if it shows no recent survey it's more likely to? Is the file vulnerable to hacking? Is Microsoft, or somebody, doing so? And of course the basic, "So why is this file wrong in your case and how many people is that true for and what else about the survey is fucked up?"
Suddenly I have far less faith in the Steam survey numbers . . . and I had little to start with so I must be getting into the negatives at this point.
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Cyba.Cowboy 9 Oct 2018
The "survey" file (which indicates the date the survey was last supposedly run) seems to think that three of the different computers running various versions of Ubuntu in our house and used by different people have all had the survey in the last twelve months, when in reality, none of us have... That would be Valve Software claiming to query me, when it has not in fact done so.
I don't know anything about a Steam survey file... What does it say; where do I find it? I guess it's undocumented (IMHO the biggest problem about the Steam survey)?
~/.local/share/Steam/config/config.vdf
Search the file for the term "SurveyDate" and supposedly that's the last time the survey was run... But as I said, it claims on our computers it has been run, when in reality it has not.
Last edited by Cyba.Cowboy on 9 Oct 2018 at 9:22 pm UTC
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Eike 14 Oct 2018
~/.local/share/Steam/config/config.vdf
Search the file for the term "SurveyDate" and supposedly that's the last time the survey was run... But as I said, it claims on our computers it has been run, when in reality it has not.
Hm. Mine is under ~/.steam/steam/config/config.vdf
It contains...
"SurveyDateVersion" "3298391255500592656"
"SurveyDate" "2018-02-22"
"SurveyDateType" "2"
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cat .steam/steam/config/config.vdf | grep SurveyDate
"SurveyDate" "2018-04-03"
"SurveyDateVersion" "9016845099780726464"
"SurveyDateType" "3"
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Cyba.Cowboy 14 Oct 2018
~/.local/share/Steam/config/config.vdf
Search the file for the term "SurveyDate" and supposedly that's the last time the survey was run... But as I said, it claims on our computers it has been run, when in reality it has not.
Hm. Mine is under ~/.steam/steam/config/config.vdf
It contains...
"SurveyDateVersion" "3298391255500592656"
"SurveyDate" "2018-02-22"
"SurveyDateType" "2"
I seem to have the file at both locations - but based off the supposed survey information, it might have the same contents in each...
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Dunc 15 Oct 2018
Well, since everyone else seems to be posting theirs...
My ~/.steam (actually ~/.Steam; presumably having originated on Windows, the Steam client is case-insensitive) is a symlink to ~/.local/share/Steam.
The date's absolutely correct. I think I mentioned the first of September before.
I can't help wondering if the survey window is appearing underneath the main Steam window for some people and they just don't notice it. I don't like to cast aspersions on fellow GoLers' window management skills, but it's surely a possibility. And if it is the case, it's something Valve should fix.
My ~/.steam (actually ~/.Steam; presumably having originated on Windows, the Steam client is case-insensitive) is a symlink to ~/.local/share/Steam.
cat .steam/steam/config/config.vdf | grep SurveyDate
"SurveyDate" "2018-09-01"
"SurveyDateVersion" "1897588903396382204"
"SurveyDateType" "3"The date's absolutely correct. I think I mentioned the first of September before.
I can't help wondering if the survey window is appearing underneath the main Steam window for some people and they just don't notice it. I don't like to cast aspersions on fellow GoLers' window management skills, but it's surely a possibility. And if it is the case, it's something Valve should fix.
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Cyba.Cowboy 15 Oct 2018
I can't help wondering if the survey window is appearing underneath the main Steam window for some people and they just don't notice it. I don't like to cast aspersions on fellow GoLers' window management skills, but it's surely a possibility. And if it is the case, it's something Valve should fix.
I'd agree it's plausible once, maybe even twice... But four times, across multiple computers and operating systems, with multiple users of (computer) skill levels from "highly competent" to "advanced"?
Unlikely.
Certainly plausible for some people, but not in our household...
What is "SurveyDateType" ? Others I've seen here are "3" ?
Yeah, I've seen a couple of different types myself... There's obviously some sort of difference, and it'd be interesting to know what that is.
Last edited by Cyba.Cowboy on 15 Oct 2018 at 9:22 pm UTC
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riusma 1 Nov 2018
I gather that the survey is once per year, so I'll wait till the 23rd December to see if the next one comes around.
You are probably right... my survey date was something like 2017-11-01 two weeks ago and today I got the survey when launching Steam! :)
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