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Steam's January 2013 hardware survey is on, Linux is growing

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So the next instalment of the Steam hardware survey has landed and it's looking good for Linux so far!

This months Operating System Stats:

Windows 7 64 bit 55.55% -0.80%
Windows 7 14.18% +0.06%
Windows XP 32 bit 9.66% -0.37%
Windows 8 64 bit 8.04% +1.71%
Windows Vista 64 bit 3.28% -0.56%
Windows Vista 32 bit 2.74% -0.38%
MacOS 10.8.2 64 bit 1.88% +0.07%
MacOS 10.7.5 64 bit 0.83% -0.05%
MacOS 10.6.8 64 bit 0.73% -0.10%
Windows 8 0.72% +0.12%
Ubuntu 12.10 64 bit 0.43% +0.14%
Windows XP 64 bit 0.39% -0.02%
Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS 64 bit 0.33% +0.07%
Ubuntu 12.10 0.19% +0.07%
Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS 0.17% +0.04%

MacOS 10.7.4 64 bit 0.12% -0.08%
Other 0.76% +0.05%

It's really interesting to note that every version of Ubuntu listed has growth!
So Ubuntu has had a total increase in market share on steam of 0.32%, may not sound like much but when you take into account how many users Steam is supposed to have that 0.32% is actually A LOT of people as Steam is supposed to have above 54 million active accounts.

It may also sound like more when you take into account that the Windows market share has an overall drop of -0.22%, yes drop, Windows has lost market share on Steam!

Not only that but Mac OS has -0.16% less as well.

Now before everyone jumps about this there is the "Other" category to note as well, they could be even older versions of Mac and Windows, it could also contain people using Steam in Wine so people should take my personal stats above as estimates.

Still, it's all very interesting. I am sure we will see continued growth month-on-month on Steam without a doubt.

Something else that is interesting is that Intels HD 3000 rains as king of the graphics chips with a 4.27% share, good job that intel drivers are in generally good shape nowadays for that chip then!

Do you think Linux will see continued growth? I personally would like to see at least "Other Linux" listed on their for completeness. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Tags: Editorial, Steam
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About the author -
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I am the owner of GamingOnLinux. After discovering Linux back in the days of Mandrake in 2003, I constantly came back to check on the progress of Linux until Ubuntu appeared on the scene and it helped me to really love it. You can reach me easily by emailing GamingOnLinux directly. Find me on Mastodon.
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14 comments
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Xpander Feb 5, 2013
i looked those few days ago and im still wondering that were are the other linux distros counted?
i mean there are lots of Fedora, Debian and Arch users, as well as Gentoo and Mint and Suse

will Mint be Counted as Ubuntu? when i used Mint it had its own name under the hardware info.
same with my current Arch Linux, it shows the name there.

so my bet is that half of the Other Category is other linux distros and half of it is the rest of the weird operating systems/wine..

Edit: also as time passes im sure they will make the info to count the linux distros as Linux and Linux 64bit.
then have a separate Linux category where all the distro usage is counted.
Cheeseness Feb 6, 2013
Mint isn't included in the Ubuntu stats. In fact, it shows up as a separate item in the January results if you know where to look, suggesting that the "Other" category also includes other distros. There are stacks of possible Mac OS configurations and a few possible Windows versions that aren't included in the main stats, so it's difficult to know how much representation there is in there.  The fact that the "Other" category has only gone up by a cumulative 0.19% since the "Other" category was introduced suggests that its representation of Linux in the 0.76% "Other" category is most likely much less than half.

I made a news post about it in the SteamLUG group a couple of days ago.
QuoteThe real surprise is the first appearance of Linux Mint 14 (64 bit) in the survey results when "Windows Only" is selected, showing not only that additional distributions are represented in the results, but also that the "Other" category must include those additional distros when viewing "Windows and Mac" stats (providing that it's not a bug, of course).
Liam Dawe Feb 6, 2013
Interesting I hope they fix up their stats to remove Linux from the Windows only section and put Mint and others into the main stats...
Cheeseness Feb 6, 2013
Unless it's the result of a bug, Mint (and other distros, presumably) is included in the main stats - it's just not big enough compared to the other OS variations to be shown on its own.
Chuck Lanman Feb 6, 2013
Im sure Mint and all Ubuntu related distros are show up under Ubuntu.
Liam Dawe Feb 6, 2013
Quoting: Chuck LanmanIm sure Mint and all Ubuntu related distros are show up under Ubuntu.
No if you read what cheese posted Mint does show up separately.

I have added the Mint stats into the article just to show.
Chris Coulson Feb 6, 2013
If Ubuntu's share has grown from 0.8% to 1.12% as your figures imply, then isn't that a growth of 40% rather than 0.32%?
Liam Dawe Feb 6, 2013
Well no because 1.12 - 0.8 is .3 - well that's what my stupid calculator told me...

.8 to .9 is + .1
.9 to 1.0 is + .1
1.0 to 1.12 is + .12

So it's around 0.32%
Correction Feb 6, 2013
Quoting: liamdaweWell no because 1.12 - 0.8 is .3 - well that's what my stupid calculator told me...

.8 to .9 is + .1
.9 to 1.0 is + .1
1.0 to 1.12 is + .12

So it's around 0.32%
Er...

10 apples before, 15 apples now. 15-10=5. Would you say that growth was 5%? No. Growth was 50%. So, back to your counting. X went from 0.8 in total to 1.12 in total. 1.12 - 0.8 = 0.32. So growth is .32 (notice no %), or 32% (% in words is 'per cent').
Liam Dawe Feb 6, 2013
Okay so I used the wrong word when i said "growth" i just meant overall increase ;)
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