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Steam Hardware Survey For March 2015

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Another month, and another Steam Hardware Survey has been released. This time we have gained a little rather than lost a little.

To the numbers:

Linux results for March 2015
Ubuntu 14.04.2 LTS 64 bit 0.31% +0.24%
Ubuntu 14.10 64 bit 0.15% +0.01%
Linux Mint 17.1 Rebecca 64 bit 0.11% +0.02%
Linux 3.10 64 bit 0.09% +0.01%
Ubuntu 14.04.1 LTS 64 bit 0.06% -0.24%

Total: 1.06% +0.04%
Last Month: 1.02%

My thoughts on it

A little increase for Linux this month and the usual changes for Mint, Ubuntu and the distros that report themselves as "Linux 3.10".

The real interesting thing to see here is that, again, only 64bit distributions are shown. The number of Linux users on Steam hasn't changed too much since the beginning, so is 64bit just gaining more popularity with Linux gamers? I personally sure hope so, as the "death" of 32bit is something I've been expecting for a while to finally happen.

Important things to remember

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.

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? Of course it doesn't mean they are guaranteed that amount of sales, but it's something fun to remember.

See the Hardware Survey on Steam here. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
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24 comments
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coryrj19951 Apr 13, 2015
Quoting: KurremkarmerrukUsing linux as my main gaming platform again for a couple months now with no survey and then the other day, I decided to give a few games a go through steam on Wine and literally the first time I opened Steam on Wine, I get the survey! What are the chances!

It got me thinking, I noticed there were some references to Wine in the results they were collecting. They should have a separate OS listing for Wine. It'd be interesting to see how many Windows results are actually OSX or Linux users running Steam through Wine.

The same thing happens to me all the time. I would love to see how many of the "Windows" users are actually using WINE.
Feist Apr 13, 2015
Bloody annoying...

I started up my windows partition for the first time in several weeks (only to keep the system updated) when this survey popped up. I couldn't remember if your OS was a multiple choice question or if it was automatically detected...so I closed the survey box without replying. -1 linux user.
burnall Apr 13, 2015
Solution is pretty obvious, Valve should just announce HL3 exclusive for SteamOS/Linux.
tuubi Apr 13, 2015
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Quoting: mastereduJust think about, if you would have friends and family, would you *really* recommend them to use Linux? Like really? I wouldn't.
I do have friends and family, and I've recommended Linux to them for years. Many of them have switched (often with my help) and none have complained. My friends and family are mostly not gamers, though. I'm sorry your experience with Linux hasn't been as positive.
Eike Apr 13, 2015
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Quoting: mastereduif you would have friends and family,

If you would sound like a troll...

Quoting: mastereduwould you *really* recommend them to use Linux? Like really? I wouldn't.

I installed Linux on my fiancée's PC and there's no problem with it.

Most people cannot properly aminister Linux?
Probably - and Windows neither.
Beamboom Apr 13, 2015
It would be interesting to see the rise/fall percentage of the other platforms too, to get a better context of the number.
masteredu Apr 13, 2015
Sry for the hate xD But I often understand the issues only when i experience them in person.
scaine Apr 13, 2015
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Quoting: masteredu
Quoting: KimyrielleI am actually surprised that the numbers aren't going up more noticeably compared to 1-2 years ago, since it was always thought that the lack of games would be one of the major reasons holding back Linux growth. With all the games now available, one should think this is less of a factor now - but we're still around the 1% margin we always have been at. Maybe the Steam machines will do something about it.

Sry to say that, but I believe its the fault of the distributions:

The top players are Linux Mint, which is community driven, Ubuntu which looks ugly, is slow and uses outdated software and represents linux for a lot of people and I believe Arch (?) which is however community driven as well.
1 year ago Ubuntu and Canonical had a very good position but nowadays I dont believe anyone really supports Ubuntu anymore with their egoistic behaviour...

Can't take you seriously after comments like that. You think Ubuntu is ugly and slow? I don't and I've been using it since 2006.

Valve don't care what we think though, either. They need the most popular distro and to stand behind it. Until that becomes SteamOS, it's Ubuntu. Everything else is irrelevant. Sure it's great that Steam works on other distros, but irrelevant.

Quoting: mastereduJust think about, if you would have friends and family, would you *really* recommend them to use Linux? Like really? I wouldn't.

Yes. Really. I would.

And I have. Got a few friends now, tired of Windows, not wanting to waste money on a new laptop they only use for web and email. One Ubuntu install later, all fixed, all happy. Not sure what your solution would be, but mine worked out okay. Of maybe 7 or 8 such installs over the past four or so years, only one bought a new laptop and that was after running Ubuntu for about two years - loved it, but needed a new laptop after battery issues with the old one. They despise Windows 8, but haven't (yet) asked me to revert it back to Ubuntu, probably because they know it takes me a couple of hours of tinkering to get all their stuff "just so". I imagine it will happen eventually though.

What's your problem with recommending Linux?
mao_dze_dun Apr 13, 2015
Quoting: KimyrielleI am actually surprised that the numbers aren't going up more noticeably compared to 1-2 years ago, since it was always thought that the lack of games would be one of the major reasons holding back Linux growth. With all the games now available, one should think this is less of a factor now - but we're still around the 1% margin we always have been at. Maybe the Steam machines will do something about it.

Overwhelmingly larger Windows catalogue (for AAA games), crap performance from AMD hardware in Linux and abysmal from Intel, inability to use a lot of software, a sheet long list of distros that will totally confuse any new commer, Unity Launcher in the most popular distribution, overall higher level of tech knowledge required to use Linux... Take your pick. And let's not forget an increasingly hostile Linux community - a problem that has become quite serious in recent years. Team A-hole is getting bigger and louder. YouTube is full of videos of both new users and Linux veterans that are complaining about it.
scaine Apr 13, 2015
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Quoting: maodzedun
Quoting: KimyrielleI am actually surprised that the numbers aren't going up more noticeably compared to 1-2 years ago, since it was always thought that the lack of games would be one of the major reasons holding back Linux growth. With all the games now available, one should think this is less of a factor now - but we're still around the 1% margin we always have been at. Maybe the Steam machines will do something about it.

Overwhelmingly larger Windows catalogue (for AAA games), crap performance from AMD hardware in Linux and abysmal from Intel, inability to use a lot of software, a sheet long list of distros that will totally confuse any new commer, Unity Launcher in the most popular distribution, overall higher level of tech knowledge required to use Linux...

Well, you started off pretty strong there. Some good points. Perhaps you should have stopped before you got into murky waters of Unity-hate and blatant opinion on the ease of use of Linux or the toxicity of the user base.

But I'll bite anyway. Care to expand on what you think users won't like about the Unity Launcher? Be specific. As I say, I've been an Ubuntu user a long time and I agree that the 11.04 and 11.10 iterations were raw - I tended to revert my use of those versions back to... oh, I can't remember the name of it now... Docker? Something like that. But by 12.04, Unity Launcher was solid and since 15.04 is about to launch, that means that I've been using this Launcher for nearly 3 years and had no idea it was somehow magically "bad".

What's wrong with it?
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