Quoting: XpanderPretty sure everything i have on my library works on linux. Though i guess there could be few free to play games that have anti-cheat and not working, which i have downloaded.

113 unsupported is way too much though, but its steamdeck verification.

VERIFIED: 165 games (19.86%)
PLAYABLE: 333 games (40.07%)
UNSUPPORTED: 113 games (13.60%)
UNKNOWN: 220 games (26.47%)

Don't forget that Steam Deck "Unsupported" does not necessarily mean the game doesn't work on Linux. It can mean that it doesn't work well with the form factor or with controllers or like that. So even if Proton worked 100% on everything and the anti-cheat people had given in and made all their stuff 100% work with Linux all the time, there would still be "Unsupported" titles.

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So I make it 4 games that are both Unsupported (but not because of Anti-cheat) and Bronze or worse. So, 4 games out of 100 that just don't work because they don't work. A couple more if you count Unsupported + Silver. That's not bad. Shows that most of the problem is Anti-cheat, and it's a significant problem.

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In your face, Three-Circle Empire!

(That said, these days I think they use the mouse almost entirely as a trademark, which is still totally intact. But still)

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Quoting: PenglingSorry MSI, not for me! This'll almost certainly just be another generic Windows box with a poor user experience, and the parallels to how money was thrown at killing Linux netbooks are obvious and growing.

One pleasant non-parallel is that the attempts are showing few signs of success and Valve is unlikely to fold the way the Linux-based-netbook makers did.

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Quoting: PhiladelphusAt first glance I thought that second picture was of a row of eight Ethernet ports, and thought "Well, that's a new direction to go for a handheld." 🤣

Wait, it isn't? (Goes and looks again) Ohhh, yeah. Ahem. I knew that.

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Quoting: Highball

Quoting: pleasereadthemanualRight, so native applications for ChromeOS can run on Linux, because native applications for ChromeOS are written for Linux, meant to be used in containers.

Well, I guess ChromeOS is a Linux distribution then.

Yes, ChromeOS is Linux. See the documentation here [External Link].

It seems like Google has done something similar to Valve(Valve followed Google I mean) with the Steam Deck Big Picture UI. The way I understand it, they have a custom Window Manager that just opens 1 Window to draw Big Picture. And Google has made a custom Window Manager as well and it originally only loaded Chrome (from what I understand).

I haven't taken a look at ChromeOS at all, but I'm sure the Window Manager is just a Wayland compositor. The difference here is that Valve also packages a Desktop Environment and sticks with a more stock distribution. Google could have done the same but their whole marketing plan is "security" which is why you are reading about everything being containerized. You could get a similar experience with distrobox on your Linux Desktop. I have distrobox loaded on my Steam Deck with an Ubuntu container, when I'm in desktop mode, I just run everything from the Ubuntu container. You can map the applications in the container so they appear as if they were installed by the host OS, gui applications and all.

You can ignore this rant part.

Spoiler, click me

<rant>
If Google started with a stock Linux distribution from the start, the devices would get repudiated for not running Windows applications. Which is the same excuse people use for not switching to Linux now. Instead they sell low cost devices and people buy a ChromeOS device with the idea in mind that they will only do ChromeOS things on it. Which is how new comers to Linux should approach Linux. Instead we get crocodile tears about Office and Adobe and "they should make a more friendly desktop for Windows users". You don't hear people crying about ChromeOS being unfriendly and different do you?</rant>

Google has also been very careful not to allow hackers to run away with their devices. Any normal dev will just wax ChromeOS and load Ubuntu onto the device without a second of hesitation. Instead they control how you get access to the linux side of things; see Crostini [External Link]. To me it looks like Google wants to sell devices at a loss so they can saturate the market and out compete on price. Mean while make their money harvesting data and delivering ads. "You're getting a device with security in mind. *wink*"

ChromeOS is Linux. Whether ChromeOS is Desktop Linux and does it have or make a compatible userland available to the user is really the question. It for sure looks like it's going that way. ChromeOS + a Steam ready container with Proton? sounds like a slam dunk for Google.

Un-ignoring the rant part for a moment, I'd like to note something: There are pretty much no "ChromeOS things" to "only do" on a Chromebook. My wife has a Chromebook, and it certainly looks as if their marketing plan is not "security". It is "Get everyone to use Google Docs and put all their files on our cloud". Their UI is quite easy to work with, but gets mysteriously complex and recalcitrant the moment you want to save a file locally. You can do it, but it takes some figuring out, and next time you start working with the file, by say clicking on the file, it will not save the changes to the file it will put it back on their cloud.

Don't get me wrong, I don't actually hate ChromeOS. It has served my wife pretty well most of the time, as her computing needs are very simple, and so an amazingly simple, locked down OS which lets you do hardly anything doesn't actually cause her many problems. Note though that I say not "many" problems, rather than not "any" problems. Even someone with really very simple computing needs will occasionally run up against the edges of what ChromeOS wants you to do, and the fact that with enough magic some of those can be bypassed does not change this for a normal user.

It should be acknowledged that for practical purposes for an ordinary user, it does not let you run software. Period. It is not the same as a typical "immutable OS" version of Linux, I really don't give a goddamn what the theory might claim. If you'd tried using it, ideally without doing any amazing stuff that only a serious Arch-user type would be able to figure out how to do, you'd understand.

Maybe they have plans to let people run software in the future. Or maybe just Steam and Steam games. But that becomes worth talking about when they actually do it.

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Anyway, nearly 4%. I've never seen a number that high for Linux desktop use. And while OK, the latest month was a big jump, that general trend looks really nice. Not only is it an upward slope, but it seems to me that it's slightly upward curving. We are starting to get into traditional MacOS territory; one or two more percentage points and Linux becomes something general software companies may start paying some attention to.

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Quoting: mad_mesa

Quoting: Purple Library GuyHard to say. I don't think there are any programs built for ChromeOS. :grin:

That is a bit like saying there are no applications built for Silverblue.

A bit, yes, although not entirely. And your point is?

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Quoting: pleasereadthemanual

If we actually take ChromeOS directly into the Linux numbers for December 2023 the overall number would actually be 6.24% (ChromeOS is Linux after all).

I'm willing to accept this if programs built for ChromeOS work on Linux distributions like Arch, Ubuntu, Fedora, and openSUSE. Is that the case?

Hard to say. I don't think there are any programs built for ChromeOS. :grin:

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Quoting: CatKiller

Quoting: Highball

Quoting: ArehandoroSteam OS Holo has -2.46%, is that a typo or are people removing Steam OS to to install other distros?

It just means less Steam Deck machines were apart of this recent survey.

That statement is too strong. Proportionally fewer Steam Decks were sampled, yes, but they could very well have sampled more Steam Decks than last month as well as even more non-Deck machines.

At any rate, in an odd way a good sign. I mean, I'm happy the Deck exists and believe it has led increased Linux adoption for gaming. But, if overall Linux is up despite Steam OS within that being down, that means overall Linux is clearly growing. That's a happy thing for me, since I want to see continued growth of desktop Linux in general, along with growth in use of the Steam Deck in particular; it wouldn't be so great if the Steam Deck became huge but the rest of desktop Linux shrank and became an irrelevant appendage.

Of course, caveats as usual given the bounciness of polls and the unknown nature of Steam sampling--none of this data is necessarily that real. But taken at face value, it's nice.

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