this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2024
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Steam Hardware survey for January 2024 (lemmy.ml)
submitted 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) by mr_MADAFAKA@lemmy.ml to c/linux_gaming@lemmy.ml
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Windows 96.52%

Linux 1.95%

OSX 1.54%

https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/

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[–] excitingburp@lemmy.world 58 points 2 years ago (1 children)

At the very least we can call BS on developers who claim they don't support Linux because it's niche, while they support MacOS.

[–] LaSirena@midwest.social 42 points 2 years ago (4 children)

"I use 'Arch Linux'" she said sarcastically. Why are Arch and Manjaro in quotes, but Ubuntu LTS and Linux Mint aren't?

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 22 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

And why is Arch more popular than Ubuntu? Surely SteamOS counts as something different, so it's probably not that.

I'm not a fan of Ubuntu, but it's a very popular beginner OS, and I'd assume a lot of Linux gamers are lazy and use the thing that gets them into a game the fastest.

[–] narc0tic_bird@lemm.ee 21 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Arch is listed as a whole, while Ubuntu is a specific version (22.04 LTS).

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 7 points 2 years ago

Ah, good point. Still a lot more Arch users than I expected.

[–] MaximumOverflow@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 years ago

I've had so many issues with Ubuntu in the last few years compared to other distros that honestly I wouldn't feel comfortable recommending it as a beginner distro anymore.

[–] autokludge@programming.dev 19 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I use "SteamOS Holo" btw

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 years ago

I think it's interesting Flatpak shows as a separate distro.

[–] survivalmachine@beehaw.org 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

Why are Arch and Manjaro in quotes, but Ubuntu LTS and Linux Mint aren’t?

They're probably putting the rolling releases in quotation marks -- I'm guessing they're pulling the Description field from "lsb_release -a", where "Arch Linux" says just that, while each Ubuntu/Debian/Mint/etc distro will show specific version numbers (and that would explain why Arch shows up as a higher share than Ubuntu 22.04.3 LTS) -- I'm sure there are several more Ubuntu entries in their list that would total more than Arch's percentage. I'm not sure why they arbitrarily truncated the Linux list at 4 while showing 5 Windows/Mac releases, though.

EDIT: Found another screenshot where they list "SteamOS Holo" in quotes, too. So I guess they just include quotes for every distro that doesn't show a version number in that field.

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[–] Scio@kbin.social 23 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

Yesterday was the first time I got the survey on my Deck.

I got it on the desktop (as I often am during the day because I do all my work on it), and noticed that while it reported the device as Valve manufactured and the OS correctly, a whole bunch of other data was wrong, like it said the device didn't support touch, etc.

Should I have taken the survey on Game Mode? Is it even possible to get the survey in Game Mode?

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Yup, I got it recently in regular gaming mode. I doubt it matters which one the survey gets taken in, it gathers system info.

[–] Scio@kbin.social 4 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Did you happen to notice if yours also said touch support: none?

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 years ago

I didn't. I rarely use desktop mode, so I doubt anything odd was going on.

If there's a report somewhere I can review, I'm happy to look it up.

[–] sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 20 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I did my part. I rejected the survey on macOS and completed it on my Steam Deck, so I think I'm helping.

[–] samc@feddit.uk 19 points 2 years ago (8 children)

I do wonder what percentage of Linux users reject the survey compared to Windows users. Not that it's changed much, but every little helps right?

[–] flashgnash@lemm.ee 13 points 2 years ago (1 children)

I'm not sure, on one hand Linux users are quite privacy oriented but on the other hand "I use arch btw"

[–] nestor@mastorol.es 3 points 2 years ago

@flashgnash @samc As a linux steam player i answered this survey 2 times on the last ~15-20 years.

And i did it then, because i wanted to feed steam's efforts on linux as gaming platform.

[–] scutiger@lemmy.world 1 points 2 years ago

I rejectec it because I was busy with something else.

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[–] Anticorp@lemmy.world 12 points 2 years ago

I was wondering how in the world my beloved Arch beat the popular Ubuntu, but then I remembered Steam Deck runs on Arch. So over half of the Linux users are probably actually Steam Deck users.

[–] testeronious@lemmy.world 8 points 2 years ago

NOOOOOOOOOO

[–] MonkderZweite@feddit.ch 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

So what are the other 1.42% on?

[–] drew_belloc@programming.dev 11 points 2 years ago (2 children)

Temple OS, what else could it be?

[–] milkjug@lemmy.wildfyre.dev 6 points 2 years ago

If it’s not Hannah Montana Linux, I don’t want to hear another word of this.

[–] hamburglar26@wilbo.tech 2 points 2 years ago

I am still blown away that I only heard of TempleOS recently. And also blown away by the actual OS. Like holy hell what a thing.

[–] thebuoyancyofcitrus@beehaw.org 7 points 2 years ago (2 children)

I don't get it. Is Arch the most popular Linux distro at 0.15% of 1.95%? What's missing here? Steam OS?

[–] survivalmachine@beehaw.org 8 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Is Arch the most popular Linux distro at 0.15% of 1.95%? What’s missing here? Steam OS?

A couple of things -- yes, SteamOS is by far the most popular Linux distro and it was left off this part of the list, and also Arch is the most popular because it's a rolling release distro, so we're all running "Arch Linux" no matter how far behind we are on patching our system. Ubuntu would probably come out on top if you bundled every other version besides 22.04.3 LTS together into one line item.

Here's a screenshot of the Linux breakdown with a few more entries (though most are still bucketed under Other). SteamOS alkone is almost half of Linux deployments.

[–] thebuoyancyofcitrus@beehaw.org 5 points 2 years ago

That makes more sense. Thank you for that added context.

[–] embed_me@programming.dev 2 points 2 years ago

Yes and I will not accept any other fact

[–] NotJustForMe@lemmy.ml 5 points 2 years ago

I've been using steam since Half Life 2 released and had the survey pop up twice. And both times major data-points were completely wrong. Like resolution (it apparently used my second screen) and HDD space.

That data is about as relevant as a once a lifetime epidemiologic study about diet preferences.

[–] Kyatto@leminal.space 5 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Just jumped to linux after a long time of windows, I was very surprised to see my games running better at higher settings through proton. it's been at least a decade since I've used linux and played native tux games. I'm fed up with corpos and I like having full control of everything on my computer. There's only 1 program I use that I'm not sure will run properly but I haven't made attempts to get wine up yet cause it's just been a few days. That said... feels really good to be using EndeavorOS.

[–] BaelfireNightshd@beehaw.org 2 points 2 years ago (1 children)

You can theoretically run the other program with Proton as well. Just if that helps get your other software up and running. =)

[–] Kyatto@leminal.space 1 points 2 years ago

Thanks! I'll have to look into it, it's an audio workstation program I'm pretty attached to, I've tried linux alternatives in the past but they weren't even close, I'm sure they are better now but even compared to other flagship programs I just like mine a lot more and it's windows "only"

[–] TypicalHog@lemm.ee 1 points 2 years ago

I'm mostly a MP gamer and the only reason why I game on Windows still is the fact some games (because of the AC) simply do not work on Linux. And even in instances where you can trick the AC it's not running in a VM, but on bare metal - you risk getting banned.
Sad. I hope this changes.