| 1 | [SMALL UPDATE] LINUX USER NUMBERS ON STEAM INCREASED TO 0.78% \r |
| 2 | (FROM 0.71%) AFTER FIXING A ROUNDING ERROR \r |
| 3 | \r |
| 4 | [linux_gaming] 2018-10-09_08-00\r |
| 5 | \r |
| 6 | o Reference: 2018-10-09_08-00__Small_Update__Linux_us\r |
| 7 | o News link: https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/9l7jlz/small_update_linux_user_numbers_on_steam/\r |
| 8 | o Source link: https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/\r |
| 9 | \r |
| 10 | \r |
| 11 | Lets get to 1.00% before the end of the year. :)\r |
| 12 | \r |
| 13 | \r |
| 14 | ** ryao\r |
| 15 | Lets get to 1.00% before the end of the year. :)\r |
| 16 | \r |
| 17 | ** Dirkan\r |
| 18 | The top 1%.\r |
| 19 | \r |
| 20 | ** PM_mePicturesYouLike\r |
| 21 | soon they'll be mad about the our privileges\r |
| 22 | \r |
| 23 | ** salsadoom\r |
| 24 | Fucking uppity peasants!\r |
| 25 | \r |
| 26 | ** grandmastermoth\r |
| 27 | we can always burninate them.\r |
| 28 | \r |
| 29 | ** Swiftpaw22\r |
| 30 | By setting their Windows computers on fire? Nah,\r |
| 31 | besides that happens already. Instead we show\r |
| 32 | them Linux can save their computers, and their\r |
| 33 | privacy, and their sanity, and give them better\r |
| 34 | performance, all at once!\r |
| 35 | \r |
| 36 | ** grandmastermoth\r |
| 37 | No we set the peasants on fire. Like so:\r |
| 38 | [1]https://homestarrunner.com/trogdor-canvas/i-\r |
| 39 | ndex.html\r |
| 40 | \r |
| 41 | \r |
| 42 | \r |
| 43 | \r |
| 44 | [1]\r |
| 45 | https://homestarrunner.com/trogdor-canvas/inde-\r |
| 46 | x.html\r |
| 47 | \r |
| 48 | ** Swiftpaw22\r |
| 49 | I'm familiar already, yep, was moving\r |
| 50 | beyond that old reference. Homestar is\r |
| 51 | still great, though. :3\r |
| 52 | \r |
| 53 | \r |
| 54 | \r |
| 55 | \r |
| 56 | \r |
| 57 | \r |
| 58 | \r |
| 59 | ** Swiftpaw22\r |
| 60 | Except instead of being thieves who have corrupted and\r |
| 61 | rigged the system, we're Robin Hoods working on teaching\r |
| 62 | the poor 99% about a better way to game until the\r |
| 63 | establishment is overthrown. :3\r |
| 64 | \r |
| 65 | \r |
| 66 | ** electricprism\r |
| 67 | The higher, the fewer. We are the top of the tech industry.\r |
| 68 | \r |
| 69 | \r |
| 70 | ** alexandre9099\r |
| 71 | Of the top 1%\r |
| 72 | \r |
| 73 | \r |
| 74 | \r |
| 75 | ** ReadAParadox\r |
| 76 | Am I the only one who feels sad that the number of users for our\r |
| 77 | platform can be changed with a reasonable difference only from a\r |
| 78 | rounding error ...\r |
| 79 | \r |
| 80 | ** FurbyOnSteroid\r |
| 81 | I don't think it's sad. There are a lot of different distros\r |
| 82 | for any kind of people. Which is a good thing in my opinion\r |
| 83 | (as long as they are maintained obviously).\r |
| 84 | \r |
| 85 | \r |
| 86 | ** Zach_Attakk\r |
| 87 | Welcome to statistical insignificance. Give it time.\r |
| 88 | \r |
| 89 | \r |
| 90 | ** FurbyOnSteroid\r |
| 91 | [1]Link to the tweet regarding that change\r |
| 92 | \r |
| 93 | \r |
| 94 | \r |
| 95 | \r |
| 96 | [1] https://twitter.com/Plagman2/status/1047655420020453378\r |
| 97 | \r |
| 98 | ** Finniss\r |
| 99 | I work hard to allow my kids to have a great gaming experience\r |
| 100 | on Linux, so we can raise the next generation right. :) Let's\r |
| 101 | keep up the work; those are rookie numbers.\r |
| 102 | \r |
| 103 | ** moonwork\r |
| 104 | I did that for my niece and nephew. It worked great until\r |
| 105 | Fortnite. Goddamn Epic and their goddamn assumptions.\r |
| 106 | \r |
| 107 | ** pdp10\r |
| 108 | Epic has deals with Microsoft, and is partially owned by\r |
| 109 | PRC interests.\r |
| 110 | Now, I'm not saying that causes them not to be on Linux;\r |
| 111 | they're currently on non-Microsoft platforms from Apple,\r |
| 112 | Sony, and Nintendo. I am saying that their deals with\r |
| 113 | Microsoft could be correlated in some way with their\r |
| 114 | platform decisions, however. Valve has no deals with\r |
| 115 | Microsoft as far as I know, which could be correlated with\r |
| 116 | their support of Linux/SteamOS.\r |
| 117 | \r |
| 118 | \r |
| 119 | ** FartCompany\r |
| 120 | Social pressure right? Normie sees linux for the first\r |
| 121 | time Wat iaasa that You : linux\r |
| 122 | Normie : WHY YOU NO WINDOWS YOU ARE SUCH AN NERD (and then\r |
| 123 | social pressures you to switch to windows)\r |
| 124 | Normie strenght = ignorance\r |
| 125 | \r |
| 126 | ** moonwork\r |
| 127 | I mean, I wouldn't call Tim Sweeney a "normie", but\r |
| 128 | sure.\r |
| 129 | \r |
| 130 | Installing Linux is sort of the equivalent of moving to\r |
| 131 | Canada when one doesn’t like US political trends.\r |
| 132 | Nope, we’ve got to fight for the freedoms we have\r |
| 133 | today, where we have them today.\r |
| 134 | Source:\r |
| 135 | [1]https://twitter.com/timsweeneyepic/status/9642844027-\r |
| 136 | 41149698\r |
| 137 | I'm just frustrated that Epic made their game engine\r |
| 138 | (Unreal 4) support Linux, and then decided their\r |
| 139 | flagship game shouldn't demonstrate that capability,\r |
| 140 | because that's somehow a bad investment.\r |
| 141 | One would hope that Publishers would at some point stop\r |
| 142 | seeing Linux users as the market potential, when, in\r |
| 143 | fact, it's the Windows Users that are the untapped part\r |
| 144 | of the market. Any old indie company can't do that, but\r |
| 145 | major AAA game publishers could, if they wanted to.\r |
| 146 | Brb counting to 10 before I blow a casket.\r |
| 147 | \r |
| 148 | \r |
| 149 | \r |
| 150 | \r |
| 151 | [1]\r |
| 152 | https://twitter.com/timsweeneyepic/status/9642844027411-\r |
| 153 | 49698\r |
| 154 | \r |
| 155 | ** colonel_p4n1c\r |
| 156 | blow a casket\r |
| 157 | A bit early for necrophilia, no?\r |
| 158 | \r |
| 159 | ** moonwork\r |
| 160 | Hey, am I coming to YOUR reddits and tell YOU how\r |
| 161 | to MORTAL? No. So kindly back off and let me lich\r |
| 162 | the way I like to lich.\r |
| 163 | \r |
| 164 | \r |
| 165 | \r |
| 166 | \r |
| 167 | ** gentlegiant1972\r |
| 168 | I brought up Linux on a thread in [1]/r/pcgaming where\r |
| 169 | people were bitching about how shitty windows 10 is and\r |
| 170 | I was instantly downvoted.\r |
| 171 | It's like these people are standing in a pool of shit\r |
| 172 | and complaining about how much it stinks but if you\r |
| 173 | tell them they don't have to stand in a pool of shit\r |
| 174 | they tell you to fuck off.\r |
| 175 | \r |
| 176 | \r |
| 177 | \r |
| 178 | \r |
| 179 | [1] https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming\r |
| 180 | \r |
| 181 | ** pdp10\r |
| 182 | It's been that way for a long time. People seem\r |
| 183 | willing to give deep, nuanced opinions why the users\r |
| 184 | of the world can't possibly use an office suite\r |
| 185 | other than the one from Microsoft, but when you ask\r |
| 186 | them to articulate a reproducible (therefore\r |
| 187 | fixable) bug with any competitor, such as\r |
| 188 | LibreOffice, it's nothing but crickets. Most of them\r |
| 189 | never chose to switch from other apps to\r |
| 190 | Microsoft's, so they don't really have reasons to\r |
| 191 | give, you see. They're just uninterested in making\r |
| 192 | problems for themselves for what they see as other\r |
| 193 | people's crusade.\r |
| 194 | I suppose that psychologically speaking, it's the\r |
| 195 | urge to defend one's behavior in the face of\r |
| 196 | criticism. That's why criticizing Windows in\r |
| 197 | general, and Windows users in particular , is not a\r |
| 198 | very good method of persuasion.\r |
| 199 | The best persuasion isn't persuasion at all, and\r |
| 200 | it's not a debate or provocation. It's gentle\r |
| 201 | statement of fact: we use Linux to accomplish a, b,\r |
| 202 | c, 1, 2, 3, successfully. No tool is best for all\r |
| 203 | uses, but Linux is particularly good for x, y, z, 7,\r |
| 204 | 8, 9.\r |
| 205 | \r |
| 206 | ** epaaj\r |
| 207 | We're migrating back to Windows where I work.\r |
| 208 | Users were complaining about missing features and\r |
| 209 | compatibility issues in Libre Office\r |
| 210 | sheets/excel. Unfortunately Microsoft Office is\r |
| 211 | very good and it's hard to find any replacement\r |
| 212 | that matches the overall experience.\r |
| 213 | I rarely use any office suite applications at all\r |
| 214 | so can't really point at specific things myself.\r |
| 215 | \r |
| 216 | ** pdp10\r |
| 217 | I don't really use office apps any more\r |
| 218 | either, but I'm relatively aware of issues\r |
| 219 | involving app migration by users because I do\r |
| 220 | a lot of scale migrations, since before\r |
| 221 | Windows was even used in enterprise.\r |
| 222 | What's key is to identify how users are using\r |
| 223 | the apps, and then which functionality. There\r |
| 224 | are certain things that will never probably\r |
| 225 | work perfectly in a competitor, but then for\r |
| 226 | example [1]Excel macros don't necessarily even\r |
| 227 | work in Microsoft's Mac version of Excel .\r |
| 228 | So on one hand, users in some industries and\r |
| 229 | situations might have a lot of legacy\r |
| 230 | macro-laden spreadsheets. But on the other\r |
| 231 | hand, in a great many cases, workflows done in\r |
| 232 | spreadsheets need to move to a more-structured\r |
| 233 | system for risk reasons anyway (search on:\r |
| 234 | "spreadsheet risk"). So we need to replace\r |
| 235 | these [2]so-called "spreadmarts" with managed,\r |
| 236 | audited, far less risky systems where it's\r |
| 237 | hard for error to creep in due to human error\r |
| 238 | and hard for unintentional forks of data and\r |
| 239 | "code" to be made every time a spreadsheet is\r |
| 240 | copied and e-mailed around.\r |
| 241 | Of course, replacing or implementing\r |
| 242 | enterprise systems is complicated and takes\r |
| 243 | time. More than a few firms are in the process\r |
| 244 | of de-coupling themselves from proprietary\r |
| 245 | apps from dBASE to Excel to Photoshop, with a\r |
| 246 | goal of being dramatically more flexible in\r |
| 247 | how their staff can work. Offsite from a cafe\r |
| 248 | with a Chromebook? No problem. Update and\r |
| 249 | approve data from iOS? No problem. Power users\r |
| 250 | working miracles with Emacs on Linux? No\r |
| 251 | problem.\r |
| 252 | \r |
| 253 | \r |
| 254 | \r |
| 255 | \r |
| 256 | [1]\r |
| 257 | http://blog.parallels.com/2016/01/21/differenc-\r |
| 258 | es-microsoft-office-mac/\r |
| 259 | [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spreadmart\r |
| 260 | \r |
| 261 | \r |
| 262 | \r |
| 263 | ** TheConquistaa\r |
| 264 | The bad thing is that open source software is\r |
| 265 | pretty much inoperable more or less with\r |
| 266 | proprietary formats. And open formats don't work\r |
| 267 | that well inside proprietary suites.\r |
| 268 | You may have ODF but people use OOXML.\r |
| 269 | You may have .xcf but people use .psd\r |
| 270 | I only yesterday had to edit a poster that had\r |
| 271 | some text in it and found that GIMP cannot edit\r |
| 272 | text inside a .psd file (it renders it as raster\r |
| 273 | image). There was no plug-in for this and found\r |
| 274 | no converter from psd to xcf. So I had to rely on\r |
| 275 | a site that can see the font in pictures and go\r |
| 276 | to trial and error to make the text similar. Not\r |
| 277 | quite the best alternative to running Photoshop.\r |
| 278 | \r |
| 279 | \r |
| 280 | \r |
| 281 | ** ShugoWah\r |
| 282 | Funny, this is -exactly- the same experience of\r |
| 283 | watching your Twitter-using friends bitch 18 hours a\r |
| 284 | day about how bad Twitter is, and then laugh at the\r |
| 285 | thought of giving Mastodon a look.\r |
| 286 | \r |
| 287 | \r |
| 288 | ** KatsAwfulReddit\r |
| 289 | Most PC users don't really want the usability of a\r |
| 290 | computer, they just want a console with better power\r |
| 291 | and mouse and keyboard support\r |
| 292 | \r |
| 293 | \r |
| 294 | ** Finniss\r |
| 295 | Online is hard because it comes off as preachy. I\r |
| 296 | just use the stuff in normal life and when someone\r |
| 297 | wants to know how I do something, I show them. A\r |
| 298 | number of people have switched to Libre Office and\r |
| 299 | Linux because they see how I use it to do some very\r |
| 300 | technical things easily, and it changes they\r |
| 301 | preconceived notions about it. Sometimes I have had\r |
| 302 | to work very hard to make things work, but I feel it\r |
| 303 | is worth it in the long run. My biggest problem (and\r |
| 304 | still occasionally is) is connecting to our MS\r |
| 305 | Exchange mail/calendar server. The mail program\r |
| 306 | Evolution does OK but my slightly outdated version\r |
| 307 | still is missing some key calendar features. I need\r |
| 308 | to check for updates on that. If people complain\r |
| 309 | about Windows, I offer to set them up with a dual\r |
| 310 | boot system so they can try Linux or go back to\r |
| 311 | Windows if they need it for something special.\r |
| 312 | \r |
| 313 | \r |
| 314 | \r |
| 315 | \r |
| 316 | ** Finniss\r |
| 317 | My son is 7 and my wife does want him playing first person\r |
| 318 | shooters yet, so we are safe there for now. My daughter\r |
| 319 | has no interest in it. I figured someone would have\r |
| 320 | figured out how to run that in linux. They want to play\r |
| 321 | Roblox and use my phone for it for now. I tell them about\r |
| 322 | how I disapprove of Microsoft and how by using\r |
| 323 | alternatives, they make computing better for the world.\r |
| 324 | Then I get them a new Linux game and keep them happy for a\r |
| 325 | while.\r |
| 326 | \r |
| 327 | \r |
| 328 | \r |
| 329 | ** ReadAParadox\r |
| 330 | True father/mother.\r |
| 331 | \r |
| 332 | ** JonaldLovesDong\r |
| 333 | parent\r |
| 334 | \r |
| 335 | ** grandmastermoth\r |
| 336 | we need to breed more\r |
| 337 | \r |
| 338 | ** pr0ghead\r |
| 339 | You can't straight-up breed parents. That's not how\r |
| 340 | that works.\r |
| 341 | \r |
| 342 | \r |
| 343 | \r |
| 344 | \r |
| 345 | \r |
| 346 | ** StardusterPrime\r |
| 347 | Jesus, how thirsty am I to celebrate a .07% jump?\r |
| 348 | \r |
| 349 | ** Two-Tone-\r |
| 350 | Well, if you put it in perspective, since Proton was\r |
| 351 | announced, our total user base has increased by 59% .\r |
| 352 | And that is just in less than two months, not even a month\r |
| 353 | and a half. That is insane growth. [1]It's so insane that we\r |
| 354 | actually reversed over a year's worth of decline in less than\r |
| 355 | two months .\r |
| 356 | \r |
| 357 | \r |
| 358 | \r |
| 359 | \r |
| 360 | [1]\r |
| 361 | https://www.gamingonlinux.com/index.php?module=steam_linux_sh-\r |
| 362 | are\r |
| 363 | \r |
| 364 | ** Zach_Attakk\r |
| 365 | I think not everyone boots up Steam every day, especially\r |
| 366 | if they're a Linux gamer that was only playing the SteamOS\r |
| 367 | compatible games until now, and maybe doesn't follow the\r |
| 368 | news as much. There's also a whole bunch of Linux players\r |
| 369 | running the Windows Steam client in wine, which means when\r |
| 370 | that survey (that popped up this week) reports back, it'll\r |
| 371 | report Windows.\r |
| 372 | \r |
| 373 | In short, I think there's a whole bunch of Linux gamers\r |
| 374 | that haven't come on board yet.\r |
| 375 | \r |
| 376 | ** Two-Tone-\r |
| 377 | I think not everyone boots up Steam every day,\r |
| 378 | especially if they're a Linux gamer that was only\r |
| 379 | playing the SteamOS compatible games until now, and\r |
| 380 | maybe doesn't follow the news as much\r |
| 381 | How did nearly an extra 60% of users all decided to\r |
| 382 | just start running Steam again in the last month and a\r |
| 383 | half, completely unrelated to the announcement of\r |
| 384 | Proton?\r |
| 385 | And even then, what about the substantial loss of\r |
| 386 | percentage over the last couple of years? Surely we\r |
| 387 | wouldn't have seen our numbers steadily drop lower and\r |
| 388 | lower too we were nearly reduced by half if these\r |
| 389 | people were still there.\r |
| 390 | \r |
| 391 | There's also a whole bunch of Linux players running the\r |
| 392 | Windows Steam client in wine, which means when that\r |
| 393 | survey (that popped up this week) reports back, it'll\r |
| 394 | report Windows.\r |
| 395 | In the past the hardware survey explicitly detected\r |
| 396 | that steam is running in wine and even what version,\r |
| 397 | all to be counted as Linux or Other (iirc). I see no\r |
| 398 | reason that'd change now or any time in the last year+.\r |
| 399 | E: rereading this I may come across as rather angry.\r |
| 400 | Not my intent, I'm just tired. Sorry\r |
| 401 | \r |
| 402 | ** Zach_Attakk\r |
| 403 | unrelated to the announcement of Proton?\r |
| 404 | I'm not saying "nobody" did it, I'm saying there\r |
| 405 | might be a significant portion that didn't see the\r |
| 406 | article. Maybe not as significant as I initially\r |
| 407 | thought, but I'm sure more users will trickle in\r |
| 408 | over time. Or users that saw the news but didn't\r |
| 409 | think it's a priority for their gaming habits,\r |
| 410 | installing Steam Linux when their wine version was\r |
| 411 | working fine. Not everyone jumps on something the\r |
| 412 | moment they find out about it. Was just a thought...\r |
| 413 | I happened to install Linux on my old netbook\r |
| 414 | literally days before the news dropped, so I was\r |
| 415 | still in the "what can I do with my new favourite\r |
| 416 | OS" phase, but not everyone is like this. They're\r |
| 417 | just happy if it works.\r |
| 418 | \r |
| 419 | In the past the hardware survey explicitly detected\r |
| 420 | that steam is running in wine and even what version,\r |
| 421 | all to be counted as Linux or Other (iirc)\r |
| 422 | Oh I didn't know this.\r |
| 423 | \r |
| 424 | \r |
| 425 | ** dlove67\r |
| 426 | Surely we wouldn't have seen our numbers steadily\r |
| 427 | drop lower and lower too we were nearly reduced by\r |
| 428 | half if these people were still there.\r |
| 429 | Percentage-wise, you could have. Assuming more new\r |
| 430 | windows/macOS users come, while most linux users\r |
| 431 | that were using steam are already on it.\r |
| 432 | \r |
| 433 | \r |
| 434 | \r |
| 435 | ** graemeLinux\r |
| 436 | The survey isn't what counts the OS. The OS is\r |
| 437 | auto-reported on sign on. The survey reports things\r |
| 438 | that the sign-on doesn't know or don't want to figure\r |
| 439 | out, like speed tests, etc. They know exactly how many\r |
| 440 | people are online with linux, mac, windows, etc at any\r |
| 441 | point in time.\r |
| 442 | \r |
| 443 | \r |
| 444 | \r |
| 445 | ** mishugashu\r |
| 446 | I don't think we actually declined, we just grew slower\r |
| 447 | than Windows. Looking at market share to see growth on a\r |
| 448 | single platform isn't really correct. What if a bunch of\r |
| 449 | Mac users suddenly stop gaming on Steam? Linux will go\r |
| 450 | up... but did we grow?\r |
| 451 | \r |
| 452 | \r |
| 453 | \r |
| 454 | ** SteveHeist\r |
| 455 | Considering that pushes our number from about an additional\r |
| 456 | 1/3 over last month to close to 2/5, it's nice to see at\r |
| 457 | least.\r |
| 458 | \r |
| 459 | ** HER0_01\r |
| 460 | Except that this error was present before this fix, which\r |
| 461 | means it likely effected every stat they released from the\r |
| 462 | start of Steam on Linux. If they updated past stats after\r |
| 463 | applying this and you recalculated it, the growth would\r |
| 464 | certainly be lower.\r |
| 465 | \r |
| 466 | ** eggman_jr\r |
| 467 | They do this every month.\r |
| 468 | \r |
| 469 | ** HER0_01\r |
| 470 | Yes, they publish stats every month, and all of\r |
| 471 | those likely are effected by that error except for\r |
| 472 | the updated September ones. The old data is not\r |
| 473 | correct.\r |
| 474 | \r |
| 475 | ** eggman_jr\r |
| 476 | What I mean is they update their stats every\r |
| 477 | month, about a week after publication.\r |
| 478 | \r |
| 479 | ** HER0_01\r |
| 480 | Yes, I know, which is why I said "they publish\r |
| 481 | stats every month."\r |
| 482 | The problem is all of those stats except for\r |
| 483 | September, which they corrected are likely\r |
| 484 | affected by this error. This throws off our\r |
| 485 | calculations of growth, because groups that\r |
| 486 | were not represented before are now\r |
| 487 | represented, creating an artificial boost in\r |
| 488 | apparent growth.\r |
| 489 | \r |
| 490 | \r |
| 491 | \r |
| 492 | \r |
| 493 | \r |
| 494 | \r |
| 495 | \r |
| 496 | ** pr0ghead\r |
| 497 | It's roughly a 10% increase actually.\r |
| 498 | \r |
| 499 | \r |
| 500 | ** Bobby_Bonsaimind\r |
| 501 | Which translates to ~50k people.\r |
| 502 | \r |
| 503 | \r |
| 504 | ** Offensive_joke_lord\r |
| 505 | I helped a teeny bit by getting 2 people to switch to Linux\r |
| 506 | recently. But mostly thanks to all the people working on all the\r |
| 507 | software that makes up the systems we use!\r |
| 508 | I'll just keep trying to convert more people! Hopefully once we\r |
| 509 | break 1% we can take over the world, mwahahaha >:)\r |
| 510 | \r |
| 511 | ** LucasZanella\r |
| 512 | Wait. There was an error... and it went up ?\r |
| 513 | \r |
| 514 | ** zmaile\r |
| 515 | Another way to look at it - there was an error... and windows\r |
| 516 | went down.\r |
| 517 | \r |
| 518 | \r |
| 519 | ** Breadland\r |
| 520 | If they add all the fixes that were found for a lot of the\r |
| 521 | non-whitelisted games, I think a lot more people would use it.\r |
| 522 | Fallout 4 didn't work for me at first. But after looking at\r |
| 523 | spcr.netlify.com and the github issues page for proton, I found\r |
| 524 | the 3 things I had to do to fix all my problems. Now it runs\r |
| 525 | flawlessly. Well it hangs on exit, but apart from that, I never\r |
| 526 | had any issues ingame.\r |
| 527 | If Valve would add a way to implement these community fixes, so\r |
| 528 | the average user doesn't have to do anything in the terminal or\r |
| 529 | in the fallout .ini files, then playing Windows only games on\r |
| 530 | Linux would be a lot more accessible.\r |
| 531 | So hopefully by the time Proton comes out of beta, we'll have\r |
| 532 | this feature implemented.\r |
| 533 | \r |
| 534 | ** FurbyOnSteroid\r |
| 535 | I'm almost certain that this is where it's heading. As soon\r |
| 536 | as they know how a certain game can be played, all they need\r |
| 537 | to do is to put these instructions into the "first-time-run"\r |
| 538 | setup present on any game which sets these things\r |
| 539 | automatically.\r |
| 540 | \r |
| 541 | ** PolygonKiwii\r |
| 542 | Ironically, the "first-time-run" setup on some games is\r |
| 543 | the only thing blocking them from working perfectly out of\r |
| 544 | the box. Having Proton-specific ones would be a great\r |
| 545 | step. They could start by removing runtimes that are built\r |
| 546 | into Wine already and won't install cleanly anyway.\r |
| 547 | \r |
| 548 | \r |
| 549 | \r |
| 550 | ** jaykstah\r |
| 551 | I'm very excited to see this momentum. I switched to Linux Mint\r |
| 552 | and quickly fell back into Win10 due to friends still regularly\r |
| 553 | playing PUBG and some other games that are broken on Linux. This\r |
| 554 | past month I've switched back to 100% Linux usage going from\r |
| 555 | Kubuntu to Ubuntu back to Mint on my main machine (have also\r |
| 556 | been only using Linux Mint or Ubuntu on my laptop for the past\r |
| 557 | year and a half or so).\r |
| 558 | I'm glad I hopped back in to contribute to this growth. Moving\r |
| 559 | into 2019 let's make some big moves and make sure everyone knows\r |
| 560 | that Linux is the place to be if you want to play games and\r |
| 561 | simply have fun with your computer! One of my favorite things\r |
| 562 | about Linux is still customization as it lets you have fun in\r |
| 563 | doing menial tasks.\r |
| 564 | Everyone in this community is awesome for the most part so as\r |
| 565 | long as we still act as a positive influence and encourage\r |
| 566 | others in the gaming community to make the switch in a welcoming\r |
| 567 | manner then we should be able to come back here month after\r |
| 568 | month and celebrate even more growth!\r |
| 569 | \r |
| 570 | ** INITMalcanis\r |
| 571 | I'm very excited to see this momentum.\r |
| 572 | \r |
| 573 | It is exciting! And I'm delighted to find that Linux is\r |
| 574 | become so new-user friendly just when MS appears to be\r |
| 575 | dialing all the things that people dislike about Windows up\r |
| 576 | to 11.\r |
| 577 | It's long been an aphorism of mine that the future happens\r |
| 578 | either half as fast or 10 times quicker than anyone expects.\r |
| 579 | Linux has had a long run of "half as fast" - I find myself\r |
| 580 | hoping that there's going to be a phase change to "10 times\r |
| 581 | as quick".\r |
| 582 | \r |
| 583 | \r |
| 584 | ** MomoSinX\r |
| 585 | Wow, nice!\r |
| 586 | \r |
| 587 | ** AskJeevesIsBest\r |
| 588 | I'm sure the number will keep growing\r |
| 589 | \r |
| 590 | ** liamdawe\r |
| 591 | Updated [1]GOL's dedicated page that shows some history of it.\r |
| 592 | \r |
| 593 | \r |
| 594 | \r |
| 595 | \r |
| 596 | [1]\r |
| 597 | https://www.gamingonlinux.com/index.php?module=steam_linux_share\r |
| 598 | \r |
| 599 | ** pr0ghead\r |
| 600 | So we've now regained the last 15 months lost to the Chinese\r |
| 601 | invasion. Neat.\r |
| 602 | \r |
| 603 | \r |
| 604 | ** Gundurr\r |
| 605 | i need a more powerful gaming rig\r |
| 606 | \r |
| 607 | ** ws-ilazki\r |
| 608 | So do a lot of people, if those statistics are even remotely\r |
| 609 | accurate. 30% of users still only have 2 physical cores, and\r |
| 610 | 60% have 4. No hyperthreading stats in that section, but\r |
| 611 | elsewhere it says only about half of surveyed systems have\r |
| 612 | it. The number of users with 8-core chips is only slightly\r |
| 613 | higher than the total Linux user stats. It's no wonder devs\r |
| 614 | don't bother making their code use more threads, if only\r |
| 615 | about 5% of Steam users have 6+ cores. Even scarier when you\r |
| 616 | consider that, since it's restricted to Steam users, the\r |
| 617 | survey probably over-represents higher-end systems.\r |
| 618 | RAM is more in line with what I expected, with the majority\r |
| 619 | having 8 or 16GB. I did expect >16GB to be a bit higher than\r |
| 620 | it was, though.\r |
| 621 | Also unsurprisingly, two 1920x1080 displays is the most\r |
| 622 | common multi-monitor configuration. I'm disappointed that it\r |
| 623 | doesn't give any sort of idea how many multi-monitor users\r |
| 624 | there are in comparison to people still only using one.\r |
| 625 | Most of the stats are pretty consistent between Linux-only\r |
| 626 | and Windows-only, too. Exceptions being higher representation\r |
| 627 | of 16GB in Linux, and total disk space in Linux is much\r |
| 628 | lower. The latter is probably because of people dual booting\r |
| 629 | and allocating less space to Linux, since most of their\r |
| 630 | space-eating games are in Windows.\r |
| 631 | \r |
| 632 | ** PolygonKiwii\r |
| 633 | and total disk space in Linux is much lower. The latter is\r |
| 634 | probably because of people dual booting and allocating\r |
| 635 | less space to Linux, since most of their space-eating\r |
| 636 | games are in Windows.\r |
| 637 | It's also because it's not detecting it correctly. For me\r |
| 638 | it always lists the amount of free space on my root\r |
| 639 | filesystem as the "total" disk space, no matter how many\r |
| 640 | other drives are mounted.\r |
| 641 | \r |
| 642 | \r |
| 643 | ** INITMalcanis\r |
| 644 | RAM is God damb expensive these days, that's maybe why\r |
| 645 | \r |
| 646 | ** ws-ilazki\r |
| 647 | That's true. It was already stupidly expensive when I\r |
| 648 | built this PC last year, and it's only gotten worse\r |
| 649 | since then apparently. I wish I could have maxed the\r |
| 650 | board out then, but I was already pushing the budget\r |
| 651 | when I went for 32GB. I was upgrading from a\r |
| 652 | ridiculously outdated system that had 6GB, with an 8GB\r |
| 653 | maximum (but one of the sticks died), so even the idea\r |
| 654 | of using that much seemed insane at the time. I figured\r |
| 655 | it would take years before I'd actually use 32... but\r |
| 656 | then I got the PC built and immediately started using\r |
| 657 | 50-90% of it regularly. Doesn't matter how much I have\r |
| 658 | I'll find a way to use it, even if I have to install\r |
| 659 | Steam games onto a ramdisk to do it.\r |
| 660 | \r |
| 661 | ** pdp10\r |
| 662 | I figured it would take years before I'd actually\r |
| 663 | use 32... but then I got the PC built and\r |
| 664 | immediately started using 50-90% of it regularly.\r |
| 665 | That's always how it works, especially in modern\r |
| 666 | systems with virtual memory.\r |
| 667 | Back when we had RISC workstations that had 8 to 32\r |
| 668 | times as much memory as a contemporary gaming PC,\r |
| 669 | those with the latter just couldn't see how the\r |
| 670 | memory would ever get used.\r |
| 671 | \r |
| 672 | ** ws-ilazki\r |
| 673 | See, I knew when I made it that I could find ways\r |
| 674 | to utilise it if I tried . One of the first\r |
| 675 | things I did with the newly built system was\r |
| 676 | mount half of it as a ramdisk and compile\r |
| 677 | something using all cores and no disk bottleneck,\r |
| 678 | just to watch it fly, and after that I played a\r |
| 679 | couple games off ramdisk to compare load times.\r |
| 680 | I've been abusing Linux features in stupid ways\r |
| 681 | for a long time, so I was looking forward to\r |
| 682 | doing dumb stuff like that. Plus I knew I'd be\r |
| 683 | doing GPU passthrough and using a large chunk of\r |
| 684 | it for that VM.\r |
| 685 | The thing that surprised me is how quickly I went\r |
| 686 | past 16 and even 24GB without intentionally doing\r |
| 687 | things to use every scrap of memory available.\r |
| 688 | Casual usage tends to sit at 10-14GB, and it goes\r |
| 689 | up quickly from there when I start doing anything\r |
| 690 | other than browsing.\r |
| 691 | It also didn't take long to adopt a "screw it, I\r |
| 692 | don't need to close this program" mentality with\r |
| 693 | programs I'm not using, only closing things when\r |
| 694 | I get over ~80% usage or need more memory free to\r |
| 695 | start the VM. I have a couple xkill -esque global\r |
| 696 | shortcut that send SIGSTOP or SIGCONT to a window\r |
| 697 | I click, so when I get done using a program for a\r |
| 698 | while I tend to "pause" it instead of closing, so\r |
| 699 | that I can leave even cpu-heavy programs open and\r |
| 700 | avoid startup times.\r |
| 701 | \r |
| 702 | ** pdp10\r |
| 703 | I have a couple xkill-esque global shortcut\r |
| 704 | that send SIGSTOP or SIGCONT to a window I\r |
| 705 | click, so when I get done using a program for\r |
| 706 | a while I tend to "pause" it instead of\r |
| 707 | closing, so that I can leave even cpu-heavy\r |
| 708 | programs open and avoid startup times.\r |
| 709 | That's interesting!\r |
| 710 | \r |
| 711 | ** ws-ilazki\r |
| 712 | Actually, I forgot that I recently merged\r |
| 713 | them into a single shortcut/script, so that\r |
| 714 | was slightly incorrect. I originally\r |
| 715 | started with a couple shell functions, stop\r |
| 716 | and cont , that would do kill -STOP (or\r |
| 717 | -CONT) if given a PID or assume a process\r |
| 718 | name and use killall otherwise. Then I\r |
| 719 | reproduced that as-is with two shortcuts\r |
| 720 | and xdotool and did that for a bit.\r |
| 721 | Finally, the current setup, which checks if\r |
| 722 | the selected window is paused with ps and\r |
| 723 | sends the appropriate signal to toggle\r |
| 724 | state.\r |
| 725 | Here's the current script: #!/bin/sh\r |
| 726 | \r |
| 727 | # Get a pid via cursor, similar to xkill,\r |
| 728 | and STOP it.\r |
| 729 | # If pid is already stopped (state T), CONT\r |
| 730 | instead.\r |
| 731 | \r |
| 732 | pid="$(xdotool selectwindow getwindowpid)"\r |
| 733 | state="$(ps -q $pid -o state --no-headers)"\r |
| 734 | signal="-STOP"\r |
| 735 | \r |
| 736 | if [ "x$state" = "xT" ] ; then\r |
| 737 | signal="-CONT"\r |
| 738 | fi\r |
| 739 | \r |
| 740 | kill $signal $pid\r |
| 741 | Right now I have it bound to meta+s as a\r |
| 742 | mnemonic for "stop" but meta+p for\r |
| 743 | "play|pause" would probably make more\r |
| 744 | sense.\r |
| 745 | \r |
| 746 | \r |
| 747 | \r |
| 748 | \r |
| 749 | \r |
| 750 | \r |
| 751 | \r |
| 752 | ** pdp10\r |
| 753 | It's no wonder devs don't bother making their code use\r |
| 754 | more threads, if only about 5% of Steam users have 6+\r |
| 755 | cores.\r |
| 756 | One generally-accepted theory is that both major consoles\r |
| 757 | being 8-core AMD APUs since 2013 has already been pushing\r |
| 758 | developers of performance-intensive titles to use ~7 cores\r |
| 759 | effectively in their cross-platform games.\r |
| 760 | \r |
| 761 | Also unsurprisingly, two 1920x1080 displays is the most\r |
| 762 | common multi-monitor configuration.\r |
| 763 | Multiple 1920x1080 has been the most cost-effective,\r |
| 764 | high-value configuration for a number of years, and I\r |
| 765 | assume that's why the popularity.\r |
| 766 | The Hardware Survey says that Linux users are\r |
| 767 | significantly more likely to be using both UHD/4K\r |
| 768 | 3840x2160 and also laptop-res 1366x768, interestingly\r |
| 769 | enough. Basically, there's more hardware diversity at the\r |
| 770 | low and high end with Linux, which suggests that Linux is\r |
| 771 | less likely to be used to game on dedicated gaming rigs,\r |
| 772 | and more likely to be used to game where it's already\r |
| 773 | installed on high-end workstations and on regular laptops.\r |
| 774 | \r |
| 775 | ** ws-ilazki\r |
| 776 | One generally-accepted theory is that both major\r |
| 777 | consoles being 8-core AMD APUs since 2013 has already\r |
| 778 | been pushing developers of performance-intensive titles\r |
| 779 | to use ~7 cores effectively in their cross-platform\r |
| 780 | games.\r |
| 781 | I noticed that myself. And now that Ryzen finally\r |
| 782 | dragged Intel kicking and screaming into the >4 core\r |
| 783 | world, hopefully it will continue to improve.\r |
| 784 | \r |
| 785 | Multiple 1920x1080 has been the most cost-effective,\r |
| 786 | high-value configuration for a number of years, and I\r |
| 787 | assume that's why the popularity\r |
| 788 | Probably, it's what I favour for the same reason,\r |
| 789 | though I use more than two displays because there's\r |
| 790 | never enough screen real estate. I sort of hoped to see\r |
| 791 | a larger portion of users with resolutions indicating\r |
| 792 | more than two displays when I saw the gtx 1060 (which\r |
| 793 | has at least 4 outputs) was the most popular GPU.\r |
| 794 | I really wish the survey gave some indication of the\r |
| 795 | ratio of multi-display vs. single-display users, like I\r |
| 796 | already said. I've noticed it's a lot more common than\r |
| 797 | it was when I first started doing it, but I'm curious\r |
| 798 | to know how common it's gotten. People tend to scoff at\r |
| 799 | the idea until they try it and then they never go back.\r |
| 800 | \r |
| 801 | \r |
| 802 | \r |
| 803 | ** Parareda8\r |
| 804 | Also money\r |
| 805 | \r |
| 806 | \r |
| 807 | ** silmeth\r |
| 808 | The num of cores thing is also kind of a chicken and egg\r |
| 809 | situation. I have a pretty decent PC with “only” 4 cores\r |
| 810 | i5-6600 because for games and most workloads it’s more\r |
| 811 | than enough while the saved money could be spent by me on\r |
| 812 | faster RAM and stronger GPU.\r |
| 813 | My gf’s PC has 6 cores not because having 6+ cores made\r |
| 814 | great sense at the time of buying it (nor atm IMO) but\r |
| 815 | only because the new Coffee Lake i5 CPUs increased the\r |
| 816 | cores number and her PC is about a year newer than mine.\r |
| 817 | It just makes sense, if games are the main intended\r |
| 818 | workload, to buy a better GPU even at a cost of a weaker\r |
| 819 | CPU, so I’d expect much lower number of high-end CPUs than\r |
| 820 | GPUs in the Steam survey.\r |
| 821 | \r |
| 822 | \r |
| 823 | \r |
| 824 | ** pdp10\r |
| 825 | Hardware pricing and availability has been a roller-coaster\r |
| 826 | for the last couple of years.\r |
| 827 | It's entirely possible that we've seen the turning point\r |
| 828 | where hardware stops getting cheaper and faster as time goes\r |
| 829 | on. If so, it will take the general public a long time to\r |
| 830 | accept it, just as it took them a long time to accept that\r |
| 831 | semiconductor manufacturing made everything cheaper, better,\r |
| 832 | faster, and use less powerful as time went on.\r |
| 833 | Nobody had any reason to think that the DRAM price increases\r |
| 834 | that started slowly in 2016 would be the beginning of the end\r |
| 835 | of hardware getting cheaper, but right now it's looking like\r |
| 836 | that will have been the case.\r |
| 837 | The big opportunity going forward is from used hardware, as\r |
| 838 | the prices are largely going to reflect the past when used\r |
| 839 | hardware retained very little value after a couple of years.\r |
| 840 | Linux users aren't chained to OEM operating system licenses\r |
| 841 | and [1]activations when changing hardware . That gives Linux\r |
| 842 | users a notable advantage because they can ignore activations\r |
| 843 | and license concerns when shopping for used hardware and when\r |
| 844 | incrementally upgrading their machine, unlike Windows users.\r |
| 845 | \r |
| 846 | \r |
| 847 | \r |
| 848 | \r |
| 849 | [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M3bezYerYxQ\r |
| 850 | \r |
| 851 | \r |
| 852 | ** Oxxy_moron\r |
| 853 | I moved to Linux full time about a month or so ago, been trying\r |
| 854 | to launch new steam games to just see if they work and edge up\r |
| 855 | the stats (as I have no time to play them any more).\r |
| 856 | Hope I was captured in that rise!\r |
| 857 | \r |
| 858 | ** indiepenguins\r |
| 859 | so, with 10.5mil active players, that brings us to around 375k\r |
| 860 | lnx players? and the rounding error was good for about 35k?\r |
| 861 | \r |
| 862 | ** Crespyl\r |
| 863 | Do we know if Steam Play sessions still count as Linux? At least\r |
| 864 | as far as whatever distribution stats the devs/publishers will\r |
| 865 | see?\r |
| 866 | \r |
| 867 | ** Matty_R\r |
| 868 | Yes, Steam Play counts towards Linux.\r |
| 869 | \r |
| 870 | \r |
| 871 | ** FurbyOnSteroid\r |
| 872 | AFAIK Steam doesn't count these stats if you play games on\r |
| 873 | certain operating systems. All they count is the survey you\r |
| 874 | get every now and then (APPARENTLY.. I never got one on\r |
| 875 | linux). So it shouldn't matter how you play your games.\r |
| 876 | I thought you meant the statistics of the stat page. My bad.\r |
| 877 | \r |
| 878 | \r |
| 879 | ** aaronfranke\r |
| 880 | Steam Play counts as Linux but Steam in Wine counts as\r |
| 881 | Windows.\r |
| 882 | \r |
| 883 | ** toidiboy\r |
| 884 | Not true Steam wine counts as Linux or "other" depending\r |
| 885 | on your setup. Has done for some years. It was also\r |
| 886 | mentioned earlier in this thread.\r |
| 887 | \r |
| 888 | \r |
| 889 | \r |
| 890 | ** kingpers\r |
| 891 | And that including me 😁\r |
| 892 | \r |
| 893 | ** VisceralMonkey\r |
| 894 | Haha, oh man.\r |
| 895 | \r |
| 896 | ** not_usually_serious\r |
| 897 | nah its because I installed kubuntu on my gaming machine\r |
| 898 | \r |
| 899 | ** PolygonKiwii\r |
| 900 | Ah, I see you are also one of the 1428 and a half users of\r |
| 901 | Steam.\r |
| 902 | \r |
| 903 | \r |
| 904 | ** Leopard1907\r |
| 905 | That happens from time to time. A few months back , opposite of\r |
| 906 | that happened. After a fix , Linux numbers dropped.\r |
| 907 | \r |
| 908 | ** mithron\r |
| 909 | Those percents are misleading: they hide a big userbase that is\r |
| 910 | greater than almost any game has. Yes, it's still a minority,\r |
| 911 | but as with minorities that also has some beneficial\r |
| 912 | implications. It's easier to get bigger traction. Also I wonder\r |
| 913 | if there is a general genre bias in Linux userbase, but that\r |
| 914 | probably cannot be researched as per-game Linux users stats are\r |
| 915 | not published.\r |
| 916 | \r |
| 917 | ** PM_ME_PC_GAME_KEYS\r |
| 918 | Those percents are misleading: they hide a big userbase that\r |
| 919 | is greater than almost any game has.\r |
| 920 | How exactly do they "hide" the GNU/Linux userbase? Just\r |
| 921 | because there's a small number (percentage) describing\r |
| 922 | something that could also be described with a big number\r |
| 923 | (count of users)? Or am I missing something?\r |
| 924 | \r |
| 925 | ** MNfrstrtD\r |
| 926 | How exactly do they "hide" the GNU/Linux userbase?\r |
| 927 | If they offer 15,000 titles, IDK how many they really do\r |
| 928 | offer, and have 20 million subscribers with .78% using\r |
| 929 | "GNU/Linux" you would think that GNU/Linux is a small\r |
| 930 | segment maybe not worth developing software for. Yet if\r |
| 931 | those .78% total userbase subscribers only play 10 titles,\r |
| 932 | and of those 10 titles, 1 or 2 titles have 30% GNU/Linux\r |
| 933 | userbase, than you have an obscured number. Especially if\r |
| 934 | those 1 or 2 titles are in the top 10 most popular games\r |
| 935 | on Steam.\r |
| 936 | Another way that .78% can be misleading is if the\r |
| 937 | GNU/Linux crowd as a whole counts for a higher ratio of\r |
| 938 | income than other players, and/or are as a whole spending\r |
| 939 | more time per week than other groups. Let's say that the\r |
| 940 | overwhelming majority of GNU/Linux users spend 22 hours a\r |
| 941 | week using Steam where as only 5% of Windows users spend\r |
| 942 | 20 hours or more playing Steam per week.\r |
| 943 | \r |
| 944 | There are other metrics that can be easily exploited. My\r |
| 945 | point is that maybe if it were reported in a more\r |
| 946 | meaningful way, such as by reporting on how GNU/Linux\r |
| 947 | gamers compare in metrics the Steam executives use to\r |
| 948 | decide whether to continue supporting or even expanding\r |
| 949 | services for the GNU/Linux market, we could all appreciate\r |
| 950 | whether .78% is really a good thing, or a sign that we\r |
| 951 | still on the fringe.\r |
| 952 | \r |
| 953 | \r |
| 954 | \r |
| 955 | ** RedDeadRevengeance\r |
| 956 | THE WHEELS OF PROGRESS TURN\r |
| 957 | \r |
| 958 | ** moonwork\r |
| 959 | Anybody else thinking the Ubuntu's probably include Linux Mint..?\r |
| 960 | \r |
| 961 | ** D49A1D852468799CAC08\r |
| 962 | Possibly. Fedora is reported as "Linux 4.x". :)\r |
| 963 | \r |
| 964 | \r |
| 965 | ** Aka_Erus\r |
| 966 | Just thinking about how many "Windows users" are actually\r |
| 967 | running Windows Steam through wine or even using\r |
| 968 | virtualisation...\r |
| 969 | We won't get true numbers.\r |
| 970 | \r |
| 971 | ** der_pelikan\r |
| 972 | I just calculated how long it would take to take windows 96% if\r |
| 973 | we continue to grow with 31% a month: 19 months. 2020 will be\r |
| 974 | the year of total linux gaming domination ;)\r |
| 975 | \r |
| 976 | ** Truthfudge1\r |
| 977 | i blame steamplay for this :)\r |
| 978 | \r |
| 979 | ** RougeFalconer\r |
| 980 | Time to join the 0.78\r |
| 981 | \r |
| 982 | \r |