Quoting: ricki42

Quoting: Mountain ManI know from personal experience that Steam for Linux throws up the survey request far less frequently than it does on Windows. I went nearly two-years without a single survey request in Linux, but I would get one every couple of months in Windows, which was ironic considering that at the time, I booted into Windows only occasionally and used Linux almost every single day. I've heard from a number of other people who have had the exact same experience.

I'm starting to wonder if the bolded is exactly the reason. For a bit over a year, I've been running Steam almost daily on my gaming PC, I got the survey once early on. Today, I started Steam on my laptop, just to check out the sale, I don't use it much to play anymore. And of course, the survey pops up. Both run Linux, Ubuntu on PC, Fedora on laptop. Maybe the hardware survey has a higher chance of coming up when Steam notices some change compared to your usual setup, rather than polling people completely at random. Valve anyway knows what OS you're using to connect, they don't need a survey for that.
Don't know, just a suspicion I have. If anyone here has a second Linux machine that they don't usually use for Steam, maybe even with a different distro, try starting Steam a few times to see if you get the survey, would be interesting if this is reproducible.

This seems to be exactly the reason. I had never got the survey, until I switched daily gaming to Linux and very few times that I went back to windows I got asked to do the survey. Not sure how "time" plays in this, but anyway, last month I changed my graphics card and sure enough, in the beginning of this month I got asked to do the survey on Linux. It does actually make sense for valve to be interested in knowing your "new" hardware, not just random sampling.

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Linux user first, gamer second.

I dual boot generally for other reasons than gaming. First of all, probably today (I recently upgraded to 8GB of RAM) I can easily run a windows on VM, but have you ever tried to install windows? Every damn driver and software should be downloaded from a different website, go through a different installer which often try to install crapware alongside. It's a hassle I don't want to go through again. That is, I'd rather keep a 30GB partition to boot to windows rather than have to go through the trouble of installing it again (in a VM).

That said, it's true that Linux satisfies most of my needs. However, there are some things you just have to do in windows. Not because you can do them better in windows, no no no. But because they usually involve somebody else involved. Some examples are:

- You need to fill a doc file for your university/company/whatever. The doc file is made with MS word and every other word processor shows it weird (I wouldn't be surprised if MS word is rendering contrary to what it says it's rendering in its files, just to screw with competitors). You can't go through a bunch of busy non-technical people and keep talking about free this and that, Linux and that they shouldn't have used MS word. You just got to open it with MS word, fill the damn thing and send it to them.
- My parents use Skype. I hate its guts. It works terribly under Linux. I don't use it any more except occasionally (Telegram anyone?). But I have tried Google Hangouts, Viber, Firefox Hello and others, and with bad internet, usually Skype happens to better get through (no thanks to MS). I can't lecture my parents to use an alternative that is at times unbearable and have an unpleasant conversation over crappy video if I win. In this situation, I would just f*ck it, boot to windows, talk with them and boot back.
- I like to play games with my little brother (I'm 29, he's 25, so not particularly "little"). He is a totally different person, and playing games brings us together. We play battlefields (I don't even particularly like the game), a compromise on both our ends. I can't be an a**hole and limit his options to the Linux titles (very few of which are AAA) which he would never play. Doing that would be like these annoying religious people who keep trying to convert you. I just boot to windows, have fun with my brother (even though I don't like windows, I don't like origin and I don't like EA), and get back to Linux immediately afterwards.

So while I'm all for gaming solely on Linux, I doubt I would stop dual booting, just because in a windows world, sometimes using windows is inevitable. I wouldn't use a VM because I don't want to deal for a second with installing another windows.

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This relating forum post: http://us.battle.net/en/forum/topic/16543665086

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Note: Andrew doesn't represent me.

That said, there _is_ a way to settle this. How about all of us who want a Linux client stop playing blizzard games for a few months, say from May 1, 2015 (or the release of Legacy of the Void, whichever comes first) to August 1, 2015, so the company can actually measure the impact?

I know it would be hard not to play, but we can make a point. If Blizzard observes a 2% decline in players and decides that it cannot care less, so be it. However, if they see a 10% decline and decide that's something they have to address, we may just see that Linux client developed.

If you are with me, please spread the word (otherwise the whole thing would be useless).

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