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When it comes to PC gaming in general, Windows has always been the main OS for users, for its focused development on said OS, and for its compatibility with the vast majority of gaming software available.

While Windows has historically maintained most of the gaming market for PC, other operating systems have also hold a share in it, even if low, like Linux and macOS, which next to Windows, have also their own gaming market. For decades, Windows held the first place, with a percentage of around 95+%, followed closely by macOS and then Linux following with percentages barely breaking above the 1%.

However, due to the popularity of the recently released Steam Deck just a year ago, alongside Valve's own SteamOS, the percentage share for Linux gamers has seen a historical rise in usage, taking the 2nd place with 1.96%, which was held previously by macOS with 1.84%. That 1.96% isn't specific to a particular distribution of Linux, since Linux also ranges from a wide variety of them, with the following braekdown based on Linux distributions for gaming:

SteamOS: 42.07% Arch Linux: 7.94% Ubuntu 22.04.2: 7.38% Freedesktop.org SDK 22.08: 5.99% “Manjaro Linux”: 4.29% Linux Mint 21.1: 3.84% Pop!_OS 22.04: 2.97% Other Linux operating systems: 25.52%

Without a doubt, a huge number of the chart is taken up by SteamOS users, and while SteamOS is the operating system that comes bundled with the Steam Deck, it can also be installed in PCs, though it's unknown just how much of that 42% is taken up by actual Deck users, and how many by PCs with SteamOS users, but it might be safe to say that the majority of that portion from the chart could very well be Steam Deck players.

Source #1
Source #2

 

[tabzer]

DRM?

every single game I've put on my deck is a copy, sorry but its not DRM, its the fact its trying to run games built for Windows OS but on Linux OS.

I think he's referring to games that have DRM and anti-cheat that cannot be played on SteamOS or Steam Deck because.

 

[Xzi]

I like the Steam Deck, but its a sodding pain in the ass to install and set up emulators, I dont want to use EmuDeck or other apps like that.

Why the hell wouldn't you want to use EmuDeck? Or at least EmulationStation? They make setup so painless and optimize emulators for Deck so well.

I think he's referring to games that have DRM and anti-cheat that cannot be played on SteamOS or Steam Deck because.

There's no DRM I'm aware of that doesn't run on Deck, maybe something XP era? Only a couple holdouts on the anti-cheat side of things, but it supports all the most popular ones. Devs with multiplayer games still have to enable support individually, however, and some are too lazy to.

 

[tabzer]

There's no DRM I'm aware of that doesn't run on Deck, maybe something XP era? Only a couple holdouts on the anti-cheat side of things, but it supports all the most popular ones. Devs with multiplayer games still have to enable support individually, however, and some are too lazy to.

I don't know. Being incapable of running New Vegas on Proton was my only experience of using Steam with Linux. Good riddance.

 

[Skelletonike]

I love my Steam Deck and while SteamOS is better than any Linux I used 15 years ago, I'll stick to Windows. Been running Windows 11 on my main PC with no issues.

 

[Xzi]

Being incapable of running New Vegas on Proton was my only experience of using Steam with Linux. Good riddance.

Rated gold on ProtonDB. Might not have been compatible when you tried it, but it is now.

https://www.protondb.com/app/22380

 

[retrospect]

I wonder what will happen if these things ever hit large high street retailers?

Well when Nintendo sold their bargain console, The GameCube, through retailers in the UK they all decided the RRP was too low and increased it by more than 50% (£79.99 > £129.99 iirc). So I think that's what would happen.

 

[tabzer]

Rated gold on ProtonDB. Might not have been compatible when you tried it, but it is now.

https://www.protondb.com/app/22380

Too late. My newer PC outperforms the PS4Pro. Glad that it's getting better. I just never had the pleasure of being able to rely on it.

 

[Guacaholey]

And MacOS is completely locked down unless you buy into the ecosystem or do some crazy specific shit to buikd a hackintosh

what can we do for Linux ? Create a bootable USB for free

the only accomplishment here is that steam is improving Linux drivers

What the f*** are you smoking? It's a huge accomplishment. Many devs used the excuse "there aren't enough Linux users to port games to Linux" despite Mac having a similarly small market share (let's be honest the "unknown OS" we see in breakdowns is also probably a Linux based OS that's customized so it can't be tracked).

 

[HarveyHouston]

Let's be honest - was Mac OS ever suitable for gaming? Most gamers seem to flock to Windows, anyway. Now, with the Steam Deck taking hold, gaming on Linux is starting to look even better. I just hope Proton management becomes easier over time.

 

[Taleweaver]

I gotta say: this thread is hilarious.

So...linux beat out macOS. That's news, but not as huge as it sounds. Visually, I get the picture of one runner who's several laps ahead (that's windows), one who took some steps and then fell asleep after the first corner (macos)...and now slowly an even worse candidate (linux) stepping by that second one because he got a boost in power (steam deck).
Edit: forgot to add... "and then gbatemp going nuts because Linux Gaming Is Happening!!! (tm)"

If anything, it's kind of bad that steamOS eclipses all other linux distributions so easily. Yeah...go team linux mint?


But really: the match hasn't started until valve releases steamOS itself. I don't want to dismiss holoISO, but I can't be the only one hesitant to jump ship before having official support.


(oh, and off-topic, but typical: yesterday my girlfriend was complaining because her laptop is "garbage". Most of that was because windows blew all sorts of pop-ups in her face because she barely ever uses the thing. When I suggested using linux - my fucking FATHER switched, and he has trouble finding the on/off button - she became all defending, tauting both that "she uses it for much more advanced stuff" and "I won't be able to use it if it's in English".)

Tbf, they had to fail with the Steam Machines first. They didn't make the mistake of making too many different versions this time.

There were many things not good about steam machines, but "too many different versions" isn't the main issue. Far, far worse was the lack of compatibility, back then. If 1 in 20 games were playable, it was much. And it was pretty much all indie titles and valve's own games. Those things weren't even properly released or some manufacturers backtracked and started delivering their stuff with windows instead.
The fact the machines weren't competitively priced was a second thing. Too many versions...perhaps the third? I might miss a few things.

But yeah...I agree you can't really call this the "success at first try" moment.

 

[tabzer]

Let's be honest - was Mac OS ever suitable for gaming? Most gamers seem to flock to Windows, anyway. Now, with the Steam Deck taking hold, gaming on Linux is starting to look even better. I just hope Proton management becomes easier over time.

Prior to 2020 Mac users could use Bootcamp to dual boot Windows. Now they have Game Porting Toolkit, which is kind of like Mac's take on Proton, which is still in beta, afaik.

 

[SylverReZ]

Prior to 2020 Mac users could use Bootcamp to dual boot Windows. Now they have Game Porting Toolkit, which is kind of like Mac's take on Proton, which is still in beta, afaik.

Kinda sucks at the minute despite it being in beta stages.

 

[NinStar]

Gamer socks starts getting oddly specific.

No no. It is actually programmer socks, all my buddies have.

 

[Ryab]

DRM?

every single game I've put on my deck is a copy, sorry but its not DRM, its the fact its trying to run games built for Windows OS but on Linux OS.

One thing that annoys me is how messy the Steam Deck OS is.

When you install an app when in Desktop Mode, you dont get the option to install it to your SD card.

Its a complete nightmare to then try move apps from your internal drive to your SD card. It has shortcuts that point to the install location, but it then has multiple directories where the app is also installed to.

Unlike Windows OS, even if you didn't have the option to select the install directory, if you clicked properties on the app shortcut, it would take you to the installation location.

You can easily go to its main folder then move it wherever you want it to be, but no, not with Steam Deck.

It has so many directories that are pretty much the same, current, active, shared, bin, a long bunch of numbers, x86 and then you find it in .var location and deck/app.

Then there's the cleanup, making sure all files are deleted if you remove a game or want to remove something. Again unlike Windows OS it has a simple uninstall feature.

Steam Deck doesn't, it should have a built in feature to list everything installed and a simple click to remove.

I like the Steam Deck, but its a sodding pain in the ass to install and set up emulators, I dont want to use EmuDeck or other apps like that.

I simply want to install each emulator on their own to my SD card and have all my emulators and roms on the same SD card.

Ive managed to get Dolphin, PS2, PS3, N64 to run off my SD card, but because the installation of apps creates that many directories its unclear to pinpoint exactly what you need to copy.

I cant seem to get Switch, Dreamcast, GBA and Megan rive emulators to run off my SD card.

See all this stuff is just kinda second nature to me. Similar to how more advanced things in Windows may be for you.

 

[codezer0]

Let's be honest - was Mac OS ever suitable for gaming? Most gamers seem to flock to Windows, anyway. Now, with the Steam Deck taking hold, gaming on Linux is starting to look even better. I just hope Proton management becomes easier over time.

When the G5 cpu was the new hot thing for Apple, Epic seemed to have a phenomenal port of the engine to the OS/platform. On the PC side, the dream machine was basically some flavor of Athlon64 with a pair of geforce 6800 ultras in SLI. Not even the top-end G5 tower with the BTO option graphics card was the first experience ever of being able to max the settings in UT2004, and hear the announcer go Holy Shit! and playing that masterpiece on their 30 inch Cinema display.

The same machine also had the demo for XIII installed, and performed just as brilliantly, so it was definitely a case of some master class performance of Unreal Engine on the PPC Macintosh.

As I said elsewhere, Apple's failings as a viable gaming platform, fall squarely on Apple. This is the same company that first tried to bar ATI from featuring their first ever Radeon because Steve Jobs refused to understand that ATI had to disclose they were working with Apple on their annual stockholders' meeting by law. Jobs also held a hard enough grudge to basically perma-ban nvidia after the rash of Powerbooks with the 8600m GPU in particular cooking themselves dead. Nobody told Apple to make their notebooks so thin, but Apple begets Apple and want to Karen their way out of being liable.

Even now in Current MacOS, if you can slot it in somehow, you can drop in any current flagship Radeon gpu on a given platform and it's picked up in their drivers. Getting a geforce card to work is a hassle because they've not bothered supporting geforce past the GTX 285.

 

[depaul]

"However, Steam’s big leap in Linux users doesn’t mean that it’ll be catching up to Windows any time soon. The market share is split like this:

Windows users take up 96.21%
Linux now takes up 1.96%
macOS is third with 1.84%"

 

[Foxi4]

It's pretty weird to have a business model absolutely chock full of loss leaders, though. It was the Orange Box that got me to finally download Steam, before that I was staunchly in favor of keeping my own library of (no-CD cracked) games organized how I wanted. Even if you pay for PS+, Game Pass, or NSO, none of them give you half the features Steam does in 2023 for free. That's why those three are more focused on giving out old games instead.

They are still a business, and obviously GabeN doesn't do what he does for free, but you can tell he loves what he does nonetheless. Who wouldn't love being gamer Santa.

Gamepass is well-known for Day 1 releases of any new Microsoft-related content, what are you talking about? The Steamdeck and the associated SteamOS infrastructure, especially Proton, exist to maximise sales on the Steam store. They’re means to an end.

 

[retrospect]

come on!!!

• Windows users take up 96.21%
• Linux now takes up 1.96%
• macOS is third with 1.84%

This info is on the source. The Linux 1% is bigger than the macOS 1%, how this is newsworthy?

You might've missed it, but that's what news is now: stuff to momentarily engage you, or stuff to manipulate you. Nothing more. It's newsworthy if it does one of those things.

 

[ShadowOne333]

Sure the percentage of both Linux and macOS combined doesn't even come close to that of Windows when it comes to gaming, but for Linux users and even for any computer user in general, having the incredible option of running games originally developed for Windows under another operating system is a godsend.

It's well known that Microsoft is really heavy on its telemetry and data hoarding from its users, with a surplus of information about the user being sent to Microsoft constantly, and while many might not care, there's a lot of people out there that want to keep their system as telemetry-less as possible, and the one thing that Linux users couldn't do that Windows still had the upper hand in, was gaming.

With Steam and Proton, the reliance on Windows systems to play even the most modern AAA titles (or a VM of Windows, which effectively cuts hardware resources to use properly) is now a reality, and makes having a standalone Linux system possible without having dual boot configurations or some other trickery.
Now Linux users can enjoy their games without switching systems or firing up a VM, and that's a good thing in general, since with gaming being so popular, it also opens up the market to more users using the system and familiarizing themselves with it, which has already been happening since the Steam Deck released.
Not only do running games on Linux benefits from this, but also other Windows applications which may not have been compatible with Wine alone is also possible.

Some might not see it as a huge deal, more so for Windows users as this means nothing to them, but for people that use or have used Linux, this is a huge thing that benefits everyone, a single OS shouldn't hold a monopoly, and this helps give people options.

 

[AkikoKumagara]

The more people who are using Linux, the better Linux can be. This is for many reasons. I think people are focusing too much on percentages without understanding what these numbers mean.

The Linux kernel and much Linux software is free and open source. These software tend to benefit a lot from having a broader install-base and people to report issues, or sometimes even contribute to fixing them on their own! That's how the open source community thrives. That's how Linux evolves and improves over time, both in regards to its kernel and software installed within it.

This is huge, even if you don't see it that way. Most naysayers here probably don't use or understand Linux, I imagine.