Linux smashes past 5% on the Steam Survey for the first time

If we're not niche any more, I'm going to need switching to FreeBSD! /s

Two unnamed distributions, both with quite high percentages.

My fault!

You see
I've been to the installfest with a distro with no name
It felt good to rid Windows users of their pain
La, la, la lala la la la, la, la

Simplified Chinese 22.75% -31.85%
English 39.09% +16.82%

No wonder we are %5 now

I am looking at hwsurvey stats again, and considering MacOS also got its share almost doubled, it is not error in counting linux share, but most likely the surveyed set of machines just happend to have lower share of windows.

I don't understand why Valve picks random users for survey, instead of gathering data from every pc connected to Steam automatically. Random sampling is representative only if a set of samples is homogenic, but as we can see, it is not. China has high Windows share, for some reasons. Is there any legal issue with automatic data gathering?

Implausible. But I'm still a happy hip... penguin if it get's corrected to a three dot something.

There is like 130M players by month, so 6,5M linux users. How can publishers afford to ignore such an enormous market share? Few businesses ever get the chance to reach such a vast potential audience.

I'm going to quote a couple of my own old comments on this website from the far far distant year of 2020.

The thing which gives me hope every time I see Linux marketshare go up, is the thought that more marketshare makes further growth even easier.

It's hard to gain marketshare when your platform has no organic third party support. But if you can achieve it, and bring users to your platform, then organic third party support will always follow. Developers and manufacturers of software and hardware always follow users. So if we get more users, we get more support.

At 0.91%, we're not exactly commanding a noticeable portion of the marketshare yet. But every little bit of growth means a bit more organic third party support. Which only makes it easier for more users to make the switch to Linux, as more of the stuff they want is already here.

It's really a feedback loop in both ways. No users means no developers. No developers means no users. The chicken and egg problem that has haunted Linux for years. But it goes the other way too, more users means more developers. More developers means more users.

The analogy I'd use is ... imagine that Linux gaming is like a 100m diameter ball of lead, on a flat plateau of land on top of a hill.

We're been trying to get the ball rolling. Once it does build up speed and start going down the hill, it will become an unstoppable force. We've been trying to get it rolling for years, but it's a 100m diameter ball of lead and we're just a dozen people pushing at the side, having no impact. The stubborn bastard wouldn't shift.

Valve's efforts with Steam, Proton, DXVK, ACO, Pressure Vessel, etc, is like bringing 4 giant trucks up to the top of the hill to help us out, they've strapped them up to the ball and are gunning the engines with the tires screeching. The ball is shifting a little, starting to move, a few inches at least, it's working but it's slow. If they keep at it for the long haul and the tires don't pop, eventually it will build up momentum and it'll work.

If it works, Valve is best positioned to benefit from the success. A new mainstream gaming platform will emerge and Valve will be the centre of it's universe.

I feel like... the ball is definitely off the top of the hill now and is starting to roll. Hang onto your butts!

calm down, valve did some mistakes in their counting in the past, calm down, calm down, calm down...
ok, i cant

Quoting: vic-bayI am looking at hwsurvey stats again, and considering MacOS also got its share almost doubled, it is not error in counting linux share, but most likely the surveyed set of machines just happend to have lower share of windows.

or maybe microsoft pissed off a lot of people... not to mention apple relased cheap macs recently

Quoting: shotm7There is like 130M players by month, so 6,5M linux users. How can publishers afford to ignore such an enormous market share? Few businesses ever get the chance to reach such a vast potential audience.

an console with 6,5M units sold would be called an flop.

lets not ignore one thing: half of the market is mobile, and consoles are 25~30% (in terms of revenue, not ammount of users)

Quoting: vic-bayI am looking at hwsurvey stats again, and considering MacOS also got its share almost doubled, it is not error in counting linux share, but most likely the surveyed set of machines just happend to have lower share of windows.

No, it's that last month's results were broken by the well-known China overcount. Looking at any month's delta is entirely pointless. The useful thing to do is to look at the longer term trends, which Liam has helpfully documented.

Quoting: vic-bayChina has high Windows share, for some reasons.

Decades of intense directed effort at the highest levels from Microsoft.

Quoting: vic-bayIs there any legal issue with automatic data gathering?

Yes. And it's icky. Requesting consent to collect and publish a user's details at the point you do so is the only sane approach.