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Steam Survey Shows Linux Marketshare Hitting 1.0% (phoronix.com) 73

Posted by BeauHD from the multi-year-high dept.
According to Steam Survey numbers for July 2021, Steam on Linux hit a 1.0% marketshare, or a +0.14% increase over the month prior. Phoronix reports: This is the highest we have seen the Steam on Linux marketshare in a number of years and well off the lows prior to introducing Steam Play (Proton) since which point there has been the gradual increase in marketshare. Back when Steam on Linux first debuted there was around a 2% marketshare for Linux before gradually declining. Back when Steam first debuted for Linux, the overall Steam customer base was also much smaller than it is today.

While many believe the Steam Survey is inaccurate or biased (or just buggy towards prompting Linux users to participate in the survey), these initial numbers for July are positive in hitting the 1.0% mark after largely floating around the 0.8~0.9% mark for most of the past three years. The Steam Deck isn't shipping until the end of the year so we'll see how the number fluctuates to that point.
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Steam Survey Shows Linux Marketshare Hitting 1.0% More

Steam Survey Shows Linux Marketshare Hitting 1.0%

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  • Woo hoo! (Score:5, Funny)

    by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Monday August 02, 2021 @08:09PM (#61648779)

    A whole number. And it only took *checks calendar* years to get there.

    At this rate, it will be Linux on the desktop in no time.

    • Re:Woo hoo! (Score:5, Interesting)

      by binarylarry ( 1338699 ) on Monday August 02, 2021 @09:35PM (#61648979)

      iPhone and Android destroyed the feature phone market in a couple of years.

      EV cars looks like they're going to kill the ICE vehicle in 10 or less.

      Netflix changed how people consume video and tv.

      All it takes is a company with money and talent. Most of the products above heavily use Linux.

      • All it takes is a company with money and talent. Most of the products above heavily use Linux.

        No, what it takes is for Microsoft to continue to fuck up.

        Linux has not taken away any desktop market share from Windows. Windows has thrown it away. It's a testament to how well their anticompetitive practices have worked that even though they are fucking off left, right and center, they still have virtually the entire desktop market.

        If Microsoft continues to alienate gamers with ever-shittier versions of Windows, then at this rate Linux will have 2% of the desktop by 2030!

        • I think part of it is the desktop is old, mature tech and no one really cares that much about it these days. It's a legacy business.

      • All it takes is a company with money and talent. Most of the products above heavily use Linux.

        The kernel and userspace, yes... but not the various desktop environments.

        Given that there's a lot more money in walled gardens than desktops, I don't think Linux desktop usability will be improved any time soon, just like it hasn't improved much in the last 30 years.

    • Right in time for the desktop to be obsolete.

    • 99 to go. In the whole number space, that is not a a lot.

  • It's finally here!!! (Score:4, Funny)

    by cpurdy ( 4838085 ) on Monday August 02, 2021 @08:20PM (#61648803)
    2022: The year of Linux on the desktop!

    • I'd be interesting if Valve dropped a big chunk of change and built a really nice Linux desktop.

      It's in their wheelhouse exactly but they have the money and talent, would be an interesting pivot.

      • By "a really nice... desktop" you mean like, sparkly icons, or what?

        • No he is talking about the very real possibly, of a highly profitable and motivated company whose current work included a whole translation layer for direct X and getting AMD to improve the efficiency of its silicon on Linux, and ballsy enough to make it a gaming platform. Working on the Linux Desktop.

          The Steam Deck has already got mindshare. If it can get the launch right. Valve's push for Linux was a great idea, and can only embolden them to expand in Linux.

          The steam deck already runs KDE desktop through

        • Like something actually looking and working reasonably well and consistently. Ubuntu's one seemed like a good start and heading in the right direction until Shuttleworth ditched it for the [censored] [censored]

      • Valve has chosen KDE as the default Steam Desk desktop, which is a really nice desktop. In fact, I'm currently spending a fair amount of time in Windows 10 and I can state with confidence that KDE is a smoother and better desktop experience than Windows, and I can also see that Windows users have roughly zero ramp up to switch to KDE because KDE defaults to pretty much all the same shortcuts as Windows. Chances are, the main difference they will notice is, the stupid looking little window icon on the lower

        • The problem with new Windows is that it's new, they're still the same old Microsoft using you for beta testing (kind of like Fedora users, ha ha only serious.) And of course the problem with old Windows is that it's unsupported and can catch all kinds of diseases, and it's only as good as your antimalware.

    • 202 was the year of the Linux handheld console. Chrome captured the won the Desktop already.

      I have ordered my steam machine

  • I'm always surprised (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I'm always surprised at how few people use Linux. Doesn't make sense. I can't imagine life without it for the last 30 years.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dohzer ( 867770 )

      Even though I use Linux, the chance of me having Steam installed on Linux depends on how badly I want to play the randomly supported older games.
      Mostly I game via a system reset to my Windows partition.

      • Lol, you might actually want to go back and look at steam then.

        Their proton support is now astounding. I'm playing two early access games that are Windows only on Linux right now, and the only real issues are the early access ones.

        https://www.protondb.com/ [protondb.com]

    • Re:I'm always surprised (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Brain-Fu ( 1274756 ) on Monday August 02, 2021 @09:42PM (#61648993) Homepage Journal

      Using Linux requires more troubleshooting than using Windows.

      More hardware and more software is compatible with Windows.

      Windows comes pre-installed on desktops and laptops that are reasonably priced (distinguishing it from Apple's hardware).

      It seems clear to me why Windows is still in the dominant spot. I hate Windows because it pushes me around, spies on me, and advertises at me. Since I am smart enough to troubleshoot my PC and willing to shop for Linux-compatible hardware, the choice is easy. But I can understand why most people choose Windows instead.

      • More hardware and more software is compatible with Windows.

        Thanks for the 15 year old observations. Don't you ever wonder if this is still true? No? But you do still like saying it!

        • Re: I'm always surprised (Score:3, Informative)

          by rpnx ( 8338853 )
          It's still true. Signed, a guy with Linux, Mac, and Windows computers. (and also BSD in a VM)

          • Sure..let me just get my get windows on my phone....hmmm

            The bottom line is your comment is 20 years out of date. Linux simply supports more hardware than windows ever did.

            • Re: (Score:1)

              by rpnx ( 8338853 )
              Linux has pretty decent hardware support these days. But software support is still much better on the Windows side. Hardware support is also slightly better on Windows as well. Things like DPI scaling which Linux doesn't have properly (mainly because Linux UI toolkits scale in pixels instead of abstract units like on Windows).

              The "400 units" model of Windows v.s. the "400 pixels" model of Linux is a win for Windows. It makes thing way too small on Linux often with high DPI screens. And while there is oft

      • Uh, are you unaware that you have that largely backwards?

        • Re:I'm always surprised (Score:4, Informative)

          by Brain-Fu ( 1274756 ) on Tuesday August 03, 2021 @09:24AM (#61650565) Homepage Journal

          I use Windows at work and Linux at home, and I have also used Windows at home.

          Linux has always given me more trouble than Windows. Not a lot more trouble, but more. I have had to figure things out, hit technical forums and look up answers, execute complex commands on the command line, edit config files, and so on, significantly more with Linux than with Windows.

          I have had to deal with hardware compatibility when I switched to Linux including my one-hand gaming keyboard being completely unsupported, my 3d vision glasses not working, and my printer not working. I have found online specific brands that work better (or at all) with Linux, whereas they all work fine with Windows out of the box.

          And I have found Wine to be....ok but not great. I attempted to run Windows software using it that even damaged my system in one case, and I was mocked by members of the Linux community for even expecting it would work (apparently, I should have just known that some types of windows program should never be run through Wine). Plenty of games, in particular, still don't run on Wine. I attempted to get iTunes running under Wine and that was a flop. I have since found some how-to articles that might be helpful, but I am not actually that motivated in this case since I was just checking it out for a friend who is thinking of switching to Linux, and is hesitating due to all of these realities.

          So, no, I don't think I have this exactly backwards. This summary exactly represents my direct experience with Linux. I don't work in IT maintaining server racks, maybe such people have a different experience. But if we are talking about Linux on the desktop, then this is where things still stand.

          • I have found the reverse to be true. I picked up a lovely second hand scanner for penuts which runs like a champ on Linux, but windows no. I knew I could get it because windows killed scanners.

            The other thing is I like buying console joypads, always work out of box on Linux.

            If your printer don't work it won't on Mac.

            Individuals have different experiences although mine are common hardware.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by DarkOx ( 621550 )

        Using Linux requires more troubleshooting than using Windows.

        Only in the context of dealing with Windows 'stuff' and generally no more than using MacOS. Yes when someone sends you an office document its harder to deal with and more error prone because you don't have office duh. Ditto for running a Windows binary on WINE - its a Windows program. How trouble free is you typical Linux app on WSL (tiny command line utilities exempted)?

        On the other hand my Slackware box boots up problem free everytime; my web browser, mail client, personal finance tools, media vi

      • Using Linux requires less troubleshooting than using Windows.

        Less hardware is compatible with Windows.

        I speak as someone who uses both ...

        There is more software available for Linux than Windows

        Software written for Windows is unsurprisingly less compatible with another OS ... .. but the opposite is also true

      • Using Linux requires more troubleshooting than using Windows.

        Not sure about this. I haven't had to troubleshoot anything in a very long time. Things just work for me, even on not-linux-certified hardware.

    • A lot of people don't even know they use Linux, and they call LibreOffice Calc "Excel."

      • A lot of people call an internet search "Google" or image editing "Photoshop". That doesn't mean they don't know they are using a different product.

    • I'm always surprised at how few people use Linux. Doesn't make sense. I can't imagine life without it for the last 30 years.

      There's a difference between not using Linux and not using Linux for gaming. I use Linux as my daily driver. I show up as Windows on the Steam Survey, and for very good reasons (performance, stability, and features).

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        The piece that the "Linux is awesome for gaming" crowd refuse to acknowledge is that even if WINE can play 95% of your games - which it can't, and it's still not even close, though it is at least making good progress now thanks to DXVK etc - even withOUT counting all the DRM cases (no sympathy for those), that's still effectively the same as it not working for any of them.

        As soon as someone has to dual-boot for ANY of them, they have no reason to bother with Linux at all - and in fact, strong reasons not to

        • ...it can. That is the point. Steam feel confident enough to launch a handheld console on that selling point.

          The last hurdle is nasty anti-cheat which Valve is working on with these companies and are motivated to do so.

          What you are saying is simply out of date.

          • That is the point. Steam feel confident enough to launch a handheld console on that selling point.

            There's a difference between feeling confident to launch a console, and an OS being the best choice if it is optional. The reality is that while Linux games *work* the experience and performance is far from optimal.

            In many cases you can write off playing a modern game on launch day on a Linux system as NVIDIA / AMD take months rather than hours to issue new game ready drivers to patch up specific performance related issues in games. And even mature games if they don't receive special focus on Linux they cou

            • ...So if you only run games that were released more than a few months ago, are out of the "we released it before it was ready" phase, and have been patched, to work OK on Windows, then the video driver for Linux/Vulcan will already have been patched and there is no problem ...

              • Sure. If you're completely and wholly focused on graphic driver bugs and ignore my mention of performance hits, and the many games that are just unavailable then sure.

                What a deal. Don't get to play games when they come out, and they still underperform later. Shuddup and take my money man! I'm sold!

                Actually no I'll just dual boot Windows and call it a day.

                • Performance hits...I think you should have a little glance over at the multitude of side by side videos posted. On YouTube following the launch of the steam deck a Linux console running the steam library, and with AMD and Valve cooperating of the hardware and Linux support for the APU. Many are reporting performance gains in both Vulcan and Dx9-11, with Dx12 being on par...but it is newer.

                  • There are literally countless benchmarks out there showing some games are on par and many more have severe performance hits under Linux. But then if your "research" is watching side by side videos on Youtube then there's really no helping you.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Bert64 ( 520050 )

          WSL doesn't run 100% of linux apps, some networking tools in particular break under WSL.

          The use case for dual boot is for people who use windows for gaming and nothing else. If you're not browsing random sites, not storing any data of importance and not doing anything other than play games you avoid many of the pitfalls associated with windows - installation rot over time is reduced as you're using it less, malware risk is reduced, performance of games are not hampered by other junk that ends up running in

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by DarkOx ( 621550 )

            WSL doesn't run 100% of linux apps

            That has to be among the boldest lies I have ever read.

            WSL runs 100% of tiny command line utilities and python scripts that don't need kernel network interfaces.

            It does not run anywhere approaching as much of the Linux ecosystem as WINE does the reverse of.

            • One of my friends fails to use youtube-dl on it. I don't know much how good he is with modern computers since he lives 10 000 km away from me.

              (Yes i still use metric)

    • I'll start using it when Altium and Solidworks offer Linux builds. I mean Mac didn't even have any CAD programs for the longest times until recently with AutoCad. Having a large 5k display for schematic and pcb layout would be great.

  • Report from the 1% (Score:3)

    by bradley13 ( 1118935 ) on Tuesday August 03, 2021 @12:23AM (#61649291) Homepage
    The games I play all work under Linux (mostly strategy, 4X,etc.). If you use Linux, but boot to Windows for gaming, it may not be necessary. I haven't used Windows in months.

  • When Steam D*ck hits the scene...
    I doubt that most users will bother to install Windows on that thing when it already comes with a decent user experience out of the box!

    • I have pre-ordered mine. It is going to be amazing, although mine will run XFCE as the desktop. Especially after it has added sensible apps. I love their direction.

  • Add me to that list. I decided to install OpenSUSE over the weekend. That was fun.

  • In related news ... (Score:3, Funny)

    by PPH ( 736903 ) on Tuesday August 03, 2021 @09:37AM (#61650607)

    .. Porsche market share is around 0.4%. And there are plenty of people who say "Porsche is shit because I can't drive stickshift! "

  • If the market share gets much higher, forget about getting any action on bug reports, much less feature requests, as all attention goes to the multitude of idiots, and they will assume you are one, too.

  • Finally I am part of the 1% (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Major_Disorder ( 5019363 ) on Tuesday August 03, 2021 @12:41PM (#61651409)
    Been using Linux as my main desktop for years, and Steam gaming on my Mint desktop is fantastic. Proton allows me to play my favourite game of all time, (GTA, Vice City) which does not run on Win10 at all.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by rpnx ( 8338853 )
      If it would run Mabinogi, then I'd try it. Not gonna give up my favorite MMORPG. A lot of other games with DRM/anticheat also don't work on proton.

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