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From what I gathered Bazzite is a very specific distro, it's not general purpose. So I'm not surprised it's more niche than general purpose Arch.

Not everyone uses computers only for gaming, I'd imagine majority actually uses them for everything, and gaming is just one use case among many.

@Shmerl: I think you missed the bit where this was a Steam survey - and Steam is primarily used by gamers, so unfortunately your argument isn't relevant here.

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a case against Linux Mint.

Not so much Mint, as the LTS (more exactly long term fixed release) model you mention. I see it as a bad fit for gaming in general, yes. Mint just has additional issues due to its DE not having timely Wayland support as I mentioned above, which I think is more important for gaming than it might appear.

So yes, I recommend rolling distros for gaming as having better overall benefits than fixed releases distros. Plus the distro should have modern and sufficient Wayland support.

We are talking about recommendations anyway. No one stops anyone from using any distro they want.

Nobara, Bazzite, CachyOS and other. You should be wondering why Linux gamers use these distros instead of Debian Testing/Unstable...

Hype. Same reason many used Ubuntu vs Debian in the first place. I don't personally see a point in hype distros. If you want more rolling than Debian rolling flavors, regular Arch will do. CachyOS is especially problematic to recommend to newcomers due to them having a tendency to use all kind of non upstream and experimental / unreleased stuff out of the box. It results in such newcomers being unable to report bugs upstream and a ton of related confusion.

Bazzite is a special case, as I mentioned above, it's not really in the same category as the rest since it's an immutable distro. It's more suitable as an alternative to something like SteamOS for console like set ups.

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So at current pace it looks like 4% in a bit less than 2 years, maybe 5% in 3 years and a bit. But, a bit of acceleration is looking quite possible. In a world where I'm pessimistic about a whole lot of stuff, Linux progress is a welcome spot of optimism. Let's go!

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Schmerl you turned the positive news inexplicably into a case against Linux Mint.

A Linux Mint vs Debian Testing/Unstable debate is aimless.

Linux Mint is based on the LTS model, is a good all-around desktop distro, is not a "gaming" distro par excellence but among stable and LTS offerings is a good contender even for that.

Debian Testing/Unstable should be discussed in the context of the "real" rolling, cutting-edge distros that target gaming.
Nobara, Bazzite, CachyOS and other. You should be wondering why Linux gamers use these distros instead of Debian Testing/Unstable...

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I think game-pass also loosing its value has contributed.
They have increased prices, changed tier value, and removed games that would use to qualify in the basic tier.
Kind of reminds me of moviepass situation, good at start, but by the end it was a bit meh.

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Or simply recent enough, say latest generation of AMD GPUs that have minimum requirements that distros like Mint often don't supply by default. My point is that I find it a bit counter productive to recommend such distros for newcomers from Windows, since it results in them having problems.

The RX 9000 series doesn't have a big enough market share to take this into account. And even if the user has a 9000 series GPU, just tell them how to update the kernel and drivers using the PPAs (it's a basic feature of Ubuntu-based ditros, you know). It's easier than downloading and installing drivers on Windows and it's something what any user should know anyway. I personally don't recommend Mint to users with the RX 9000 series (until 6.16 kernel and 25.2 Mesa will be pushed to Mint by default) and I'd rather recommend PikaOS, but most AMD users are on 500/5000/6000/7000 series anyway, so Mint is not a problem. And there is no Linux distro that is perfect for EVERY user anyway.

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@Shmerl

Having focus on its own DE and not keeping up with the times is a downside for Mint. Even Ubuntu stopped its own DE efforts for that reason.

Maybe I’m an outlier, but the DE is a large part of why I choose a distro in the first place. I left Ubuntu when they adopted Unity instead of Gnome, and if Mint dropped Cinnamon I would probably go distro-hopping again. I often see Mint + Cinnamon recommended specifically because it feels familiar to Windows users, and IMO that’s a major advantage when we’re talking about new users who just want a computer that works. Every time I use XFCE on an obsolete device because I need something lightweight, I get pissed at everything having different names and being managed by different programs/menus than I expect.

@Shmerl

My point is that I find it a bit counter productive to recommend such distros for newcomers from Windows, since it results in them having problems.

Well, that depends. I imagine a lot of people switching from Windows are doing so precisely because they don’t want to renew their hardware just yet. For those, the odds of the kernel not supporting gear they’ve had for some time are significantly lower. (Then again, screen dimming has never worked on my laptop under Linux and probably never will, so who knows.) For REAL GAMERS who upgrade every year, yeah, that would be a concern.

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Personally I recommend new users to start with Debian (rolling flavor) right away.

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I'm surprised in general that Linux Mint is ahead of Debian (testing / unstable).

Not surprising. Mint is better suited for new Linux users. Maybe some Mint users will switch to Debian later (like I did).

Debian's ultimate focus is stability, which makes it a fantastic choice for servers, but in gaming, you often want components that aren't quite that old.

If you want it, install it. I'm on Debian with Mesa 25.2.6 and Kernel 6.17.6.

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It's pretty crazy. 8-10% in another five years does not seem unreasonable at all, though it seemed completely impossible for the last twenty years.

In my opinion a bit over 5% is the point where it's entrenched. It's when, to the individual Linux user, it stops mattering how much higher it goes. Peripheral and hardware manufacturers will take notice and start supporting Linux as the rule rather than the exception, you'll be really able to buy stuff and just expect it to work.

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Not surprised, I'm seeing a lot of people switching to Linux from Windows (or at least dual booting).

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this can happen if you've got very recent hardware.

Or simply recent enough, say latest generation of AMD GPUs that have minimum requirements that distros like Mint often don't supply by default. My point is that I find it a bit counter productive to recommend such distros for newcomers from Windows, since it results in them having problems.

On the other side of it, the trade off of rolling distros is the need to learn more stuff, but I think such trade off is worth it and that's not time wasted.

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I remember the gameplay in this game feeling... seriously disorienting for some reason. SS1 both felt old-school PC, and this one was a jump into more of a console feel to me. Maybe a odd in-between at best. One day I'll go back to it, but it most likely won't be through a gamepad.

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I periodically see a bunch of people complaining that their hardware doesn't work, which ends up being them using Mint which doesn't ship recent kernel and Mesa.

This can happen if you've got very recent hardware. You don't get anything newer than Ubuntu's HWE kernels via the kernel manager UI, and Mesa is whatever Ubuntu LTS ships. My own solution is to install latest Mesa from Kisak's PPA and the kernel from Xanmod. Only takes a couple of minutes to set these up, but it's not something I'd expect a complete Linux newbie to do, obviously.

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From what I gathered Bazzite is a very specific distro, it's not general purpose. So I'm not surprised it's more niche than general purpose Arch.

Not everyone uses computers only for gaming, I'd imagine majority actually uses them for everything, and gaming is just one use case among many.

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I'm surprised CachyOS and even Arch(?!) actually scores higher than Bazzite! You'd think that Bazzite being more user-friendly would score higher... seems like Linux gamers are more tech-savvy than I thought!

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Microsoft edit was released this year.

Ok you got a link to the article?

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Very excited for this game to just stop working in a future version of windows because of how they choose to prevent wine from working this time around 😂😂😂

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🥳🍾🐧💾

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[https://files.catbox.moe/nogivi.png](https://files.catbox.moe/nogivi.png)

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That's why I said Debian testing / unstable, not Debian stable.

My bad! :)

Mint which doesn't ship recent kernel

The version numbers might seem dated, by mind that Ubuntu based distros maintain these kernels for a longer time and backport newer features.

Also, I think KDE is a better fit for modern gaming features

I love KDE Plasma, really. Only reason why I didn't switch is because Cinnamon is "good enough" for the time being, and my requirements of DE features aren't all that high. Wayland is not required in any shape or fashion for gaming as of today. I'd notice if it were (still not using it). ;)

it's more stable than Arch

Anything is. ;)

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Mint user here. I think that's because for gaming, Mint is a great compromise. Debian's ultimate focus is stability, which makes it a fantastic choice for servers, but in gaming, you often want components that aren't quite that old. It still doesn't randomly break your stuff, unlike rolling release distros

That's why I said Debian testing / unstable, not Debian stable. Such kind of approach (whether in Mint or Debian stable itself) can cause problems too unless people understand its limitations.

I periodically see a bunch of people complaining that their hardware doesn't work, which ends up being them using Mint which doesn't ship recent kernel and Mesa.

Rolling flavors of Debian are a better fit in my opinion.

Also, I think KDE is a better fit for modern gaming features, due to Cinnamon being way slower in supporting Wayland. Having focus on its own DE and not keeping up with the times is a downside for Mint. Even Ubuntu stopped its own DE efforts for that reason.

irc every more or less official Debian related place tells you not to use those unless you really know what you're doing

You should know what you are doing no matter what you are using. That's my experience. I'd say Debian testing/unstable isn't any worse than a bunch of other rolling distros, like Arch or what not. If anything, it's more stable than Arch. Those who say not to use it are doing a disservice.

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Valve needs to drop the GabeCube2. If you could buy the GC2 in the brick and mortar stores, especially now with the Windows debacle going on currently. It's a good time for Valve to grab some easy market share.

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I'm surprised in general that Linux Mint is ahead of Debian (testing / unstable)

I would be surprised if something that is explicitly unstable was significantly popular. Iirc every more or less official Debian related place tells you not to use those unless you really know what you're doing in a way that makes Arch or Fedora much more appealing if you want fresh packages

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I'm surprised in general that Linux Mint is ahead of Debian (testing / unstable)

Mint user here. I think that's because for gaming, Mint is a great compromise. Debian's ultimate focus is stability, which makes it a fantastic choice for servers, but in gaming, you often want components that aren't quite that old. It still doesn't randomly break your stuff, unlike rolling release distros.

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Literally what I rejoined Steam for. Glad I could be part of the big 3.00% percent push.

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I'm surprised in general that Linux Mint is ahead of Debian (testing / unstable).

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I'm glad that the Steam Deck only makes up a fraction of the userbase.
Once marketshare is high enough for more multiplayer games, it makes limiting support just to the Steam Deck hardware much less viable. That is definitely a risk as seen with games like Delta Force.
But if the trend continues, they'll have to support a wide range of hardware and distros.
Let's keep climbing.

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Interesting that MacOS usage went up as well, been a while since that's happened.

It's been trending back up since around the start of the year.
https://i.ibb.co/tT3g0WT7/Combined.png
It's a smidge behind non-Deck Linux.

A bigger non-Windows share (above 5% for the first time since 2013) is a good thing for encouraging multi-platform development and support, although Apple makes it harder than it needs to be with their refusal of Vulkan, and harder than it used to be when OpenGL would work on Windows, Linux and Mac.

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Interesting that MacOS usage went up as well, been a while since that's happened.

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