this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2024

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Steam Hardware survey for January 2024 (lemmy.ml)

submitted 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

42 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Windows 96.52%

Linux 1.95%

OSX 1.54%

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

all 43 comments

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months 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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months 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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months 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?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months 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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago

Yes and I will not accept any other fact

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months 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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

So what are the other 1.42% on?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Temple OS, what else could it be?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months 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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago

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

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months 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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Developers don't have to support Linux natively because Proton does the job very well

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

They still have to make sure their anticheat works on Linux. That's the biggest missing support.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (2 children)

The anti cheat does already work on Linux, just needs a checkbox tick to enable.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago

Some anti-cheats work on Linux. Some do not, like Riot's Vanguard.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I know, but it still something developers need to do to support Linux

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Plus testing and training customer support.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago

Ime native ports rarely work as well as proton versions do too.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months 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 as I do so 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?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months 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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months 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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (2 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?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I rejected it on my steam deck, on my aging windows computer and on my Linux laptop.

I'm not going out of my way to give data to a private corporation

(Even if it's a kawaii "good for consumer" corporation)

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Fair enough, each try their own

I don't mind anonymous data going out that will serve to potentially improve my experience gaming on Linux

The problem in my eyes is the non anonymous data that goes out that is used to design horrible addiction machines

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

At least a survey is them asking for information, not just quietly gathering it behind our backs.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, I'm not shitting on it and I'm grateful to the people who fill it out, I'm just lazy

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago

You know it's not really an actual survey right? It can get all the info it needs on its own it just asks for permission

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months 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"

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months 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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months 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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago

NOOOOOOOOOO

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (3 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months 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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago

I use "SteamOS Holo" btw

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months 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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months 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.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago

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