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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]

When you enter the enterprise space, you will know how expensive solve a freaking problem can be.

If we are talking cars, windows enterprise would be more like a utility truck, which is a bit much for a single person's daily driver.

Also not all Windows solutions can be fixed without a reinstall sadly.

Microsoft finally added the option to reinstall through the settings, lol. I usually reinstall my OS, no matter what it is, if I fuck it up too much. Windows is generally the easiest to reinstall.

 

[Xzi]

I'm talking when the chart self-corrects next month. Hence "by doing nothing".

View attachment 386539

Nothing unusual about a spike in Linux usage a month or two after Steam Deck was discounted. And keeping in mind that this is an active usage chart, there are bound to be those outlier months where the drop-off is big. Doesn't mean those people threw their Decks away, it just means they didn't a get a lot of use out of them that particular month.

 

[tabzer]

Nothing unusual about a spike in Linux usage a month or two after Steam Deck was discounted. And keeping in mind that this is an active usage chart, there are bound to be those outlier months where the drop-off is big. Doesn't mean those people threw their Decks away, it just means they didn't a get a lot of use out of them that particular month.

So what part of what I said do you disagree with? A significant uptick is also an outlier. Next month, when Steam use on Linux machines falls %0.1, we can boldly celebrate MacOS beating Linux at gaming, in a similar vein that this article was posted.

 

[Xzi]

So what part of what I said do you disagree with? A significant uptick is also an outlier.

It's an outlier for a different reason: it represents much closer to the total number of Steam Decks in peoples' hands. That number isn't ever gonna go down, only up. Even if usage "normalizes" along the upward trend it's been on.

 

[tabzer]

It's an outlier for a different reason: it represents much closer to the total number of Steam Decks in peoples' hands. That number isn't ever gonna go down, only up. Even if usage "normalizes" along the upward trend it's been on.

I don't see what bearing that has on what I said. Also you aren't giving giving a spike in decline the same attention as you are giving a spike of increased usage. You can explain the increase with a correlation so you talk it up--which is pretty close to the point I've been making.

I am pretty certain that we'll see a drop in use, and MacOS to be ahead of Linux next month and maybe a month after that. There's no saying what would happen if Valve decided to give the same treatment to Mac running game porting toolkit as it does its own steamOS with proton. They don't want to publicize it at all. *In fact, they take it a step further and give the credit to Windows, which looks cheap and underhanded.

 

[linuxares]

If we are talking cars, windows enterprise would be more like a utility truck, which is a bit much for a single person's daily driver.



Microsoft finally added the option to reinstall through the settings, lol. I usually reinstall my OS, no matter what it is, if I fuck it up too much. Windows is generally the easiest to reinstall.

Hmm I find my Linux install faster to reinstall. I just copy my homefolder and the packages I've manually installed with Yay. Reinstall, copy paste and let Yay download my packages again. Done, up and running.

 

[tabzer]

Hmm I find my Linux install faster to reinstall. I just copy my homefolder and the packages I've manually installed with Yay. Reinstall, copy paste and let Yay download my packages again. Done, up and running.

Does copying over the homefolder help you avoid the necessity of configuring drivers with hardware? The reason I do reinstalls with Linux is because I don't know how I told it to break itself. I usually reinstall to do step-by-step analysis to see where things went wrong the previous time. My linux installs are very specific use-case (acting as a server, a controller/switch, monitor, etc.) Backing up everything and just replacing it seems like it would re-introduce the problem I wanted to get away from.

When Windows breaks, it's because of some malicious program, corruption, or bad update. Easier to identify. It's easier to reinstall. A lot of the "time" it takes to install Linux is all of the apt-get updates. For me installing an OS is fun, but I am not sure how to measure which "takes more time".

 

[Xzi]

I am pretty certain that we'll see a drop in use, and MacOS to be ahead of Linux next month and maybe a month after that.

There's nothing driving Mac adoption for gaming purposes at the moment, so you better be "pretty certain" pigs can fly, too. Apple needs to make a bigger marketing push to gamers and offer sub-$1000 hardware if they actually give a shit about their metrics in the industry. They may very well not since the ability to play games on Mac doesn't make them any money.

 

[tabzer]

There's nothing driving Mac adoption for gaming purposes at the moment

You literally missed on the "game porting toolkit" and it's Valve's own one-sided arbitration that omits them from the statistics.. You also missed that it is also irrelevant to the point that Mac doesn't have to do anything to be ahead in next month's correction. Want to make a bet?

 

[AkikoKumagara]

You literally missed on the "game porting toolkit" and it's Valve's own one-sided arbitration that omits them from the statistics.. You also missed that it is also irrelevant to the point that Mac doesn't have to do anything to be ahead in next month's correction. Want to make a bet?

This isn't because of "Valve's one-sided arbitration", it's because of how Game Porting Toolkit works. If you're running the Windows version of Steam in a WINE prefix (which is how people are going to install Windows games on macOS, at least for now), Steam's going to detect that as a Windows installation, the same way it would on Linux if the same steps were taken and Steam's Windows executable was used to launch games over there. Game Porting Toolkit is a modified fork of WINE, much in the same way Proton is, but is distributed via Apple's Developer Portal. Maybe eventually it'll work as Compatibility Tool in the native macOS Steam Application, but I've seen nothing to indicate that this is what Apple wants done with it.

 

[tabzer]

much in the same way Proton is

Case in point. When SteamOS does it, it's Linux. When MacOS does it, it's Windows. Who's deciding the score? Valve. How would Apple evaluate it? Thanks.

 

[linuxares]

Does copying over the homefolder help you avoid the necessity of configuring drivers with hardware? The reason I do reinstalls with Linux is because I don't know how I told it to break itself. I usually reinstall to do step-by-step analysis to see where things went wrong the previous time. My linux installs are very specific use-case (acting as a server, a controller/switch, monitor, etc.) Backing up everything and just replacing it seems like it would re-introduce the problem I wanted to get away from.

When Windows breaks, it's because of some malicious program, corruption, or bad update. Easier to identify. It's easier to reinstall. A lot of the "time" it takes to install Linux is all of the apt-get updates. For me installing an OS is fun, but I am not sure how to measure which "takes more time".

Your home folder shouldn't have any bearings of drivers, since the drivers are part of the system, not the user.
The only thing you might need to do is to reconfigure some software that might not like copying of profiles (like Thunderbird, since you need to start it first to create a new profile, then copy in your stuff in to the new profile).

Hmm... servers I generally tend just to save config files for the software. I feel it's to critical to keep a home folder but rather do it manually on a server. I know, I'm silly.

 

[AkikoKumagara]

Case in point. When SteamOS does it, it's Linux. When MacOS does it, it's Windows. Who's deciding the score? Valve. How would Apple evaluate it? Thanks.

Because Proton is built into Steam's Linux client... which I explained isn't apparently what Apple wants to do with their Game Porting Toolkit, which they consider a developer tool.

Running Steam's Windows executable (which is what people using Game Porting Toolkit are doing) is different than running a compatibility tool from within the native Steam client for your platform (such as Proton on Steam's Linux app). Valve doesn't have the means to detect if you're emulating or running Windows natively without being even more intrusive than it already is.

If you're angry about this, detect your anger at Apple, since they're the ones deciding how to use Game Porting Toolkit and marketing it as a developer tool rather than as a consumer-focused software.

 

[tabzer]

Because Proton is built into Steam's Linux client... which I explained isn't apparently what Apple wants to do with their Game Porting Toolkit, which they consider a developer tool.

So what? I understand that Valve is omitting MacOS from being represented and that this rationale is how they, *or you, justify it. "Valve evaluating Valve as a winner" is the underlining. MacOS needs Valve's permission to be treated fairly, lol.

 

[Xzi]

So what? I understand that Valve is omitting MacOS from being represented and that this rationale is how they, *or you, justify it. "Valve evaluating Valve as a winner" is the underlining. MacOS needs Valve's permission to be treated fairly, lol.

You're assigning malice where there is none. Apple could quickly and easily fix the "issue," but as previously established, they simply don't care about it as much as you do. Hell, even Valve cares about pushing gaming on MacOS more than Apple does. They do stand to gain more from it, but still.

 

[tabzer]

You're assigning malice where there is none. Apple could quickly and easily fix the "issue," but as previously established, they simply don't care about it as much as you do. Hell, even Valve cares about pushing gaming on MacOS more than Apple does. They do stand to gain more from it, but still.

Steam is closed source, so I don't see how Apple can fix Valve's telemetry in the way that Valve can. There's an advantage to Valve being able to work under the hood with proton.

I'm not attributing malice. I'm pointing out inconsistency and the one-sided nature of interpreting the data. I don't game on MacOS and the last time I had a Macbook was about 20 years ago. I have no intention of ever buying one again. I hate iPhones, and the only reason I use an iPad is because it was a perk with one of the companies I work with.

The fact that rarely anyone uses Steam on MacOS does nothing to validate the claim that "Valve cares about pushing gaming on MacOS more than Apple does". The amount of gaming that happens through the app store and Apple's arcade aren't even factored into this conversation. If I told you that Trump only uses linux, would you lick his sack too?

 

[Xzi]

Steam is closed source, so I don't see how Apple can fix Valve's telemetry in the way that Valve can.

It's not an issue on Steam's end, as AkikoKumagara tried to explain to you. Getting frustrated over the fact that applications read Windows emulation as a Windows OS is beyond ridiculous.

The fact that rarely anyone uses Steam on MacOS does nothing to validate the claim that "Valve cares about pushing gaming on MacOS more than Apple does".

Valve makes money from every game sold on Steam, regardless of which OS it's running on top of. They made a public push for more MacOS game compatibility several years back, around the same time they were starting to push Linux. As a result, there are a whole lot of games that run natively on MacOS at launch now, without the need for the ToolKit at all.

 

[tabzer]

It's not an issue on Steam's end, as AkikoKumagara tried to explain to you. Getting frustrated over the fact that applications read Windows emulation as a Windows OS is beyond ridiculous.

Here are some facts:

Valve is the one hosting the data. Their data counts SteamOS as Linux. An unknown amount of MacOS devices are being interpreted as Windows platforms, largely due to the latest method Apple is using to support gaming. An article interpreted Valve's data as to mean "Linux overtakes MacOS as the 2nd most used OS for gaming".

It seems like:

You want to remain in Valve's data, to compare Linux to MacOS, despite understanding that you aren't able to see accurate MacOS representation. If Apple's latest method is wildly successful, this data would be blind to it.

Curious about how you think Apple can fix Valve's telemetry problem or even why you think they should.

Also, it seems like you are ignoring the other point I made that I wanted to bet you on. Are you done with that?

 

[Dungeonseeker]

What a long, winded post… It’s wrong though..

Cool story. Care to explain why or you going full "trust me bro" mode?

Post automatically merged: Aug 6, 2023

Using linux requires quite a bit of command line knowledge, even for those "windows parity" type distros.

Nope, if you choose Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, Manjaro or any of the many other complete distros then your average user, lets say an office suite, web browser, emails, movies, audio etc etc, can absolutely get by without ever needing to touch the console.

Edit - In fact as I stated earlier, the Linux way is better. Users can simply open a store, search for what they want and click a button, its pulled from a known safe source, has hash verification built right into the install process and unlike with Windows, doesn't require users to trawl through fake google ads that are trying to trick you into downloading an infected file.

Linux is like getting fixer-upper. Even the most familiar distros are more like repair jobs. you eventually become good enough you can make everything run. then something goes wrong and it takes you down a rabbit hole of years of advice that aren't completely relevant to your specific model. Eventually, after a few years of learning parts and how they work together, you have a well-put together machine. sometimes. usually.

Simply untrue, if you pick a good base, install what you need to use and leave it alone then it will just work. Personally I've had the Arch install I'm typing this from for 3 years, it runs just as fast now as it did when I bought this laptop in 2020 and in that entire time I've only ever had one update break the install. Remember I'm using Arch which is a rolling release distro, if you go with a point release model then stability is even better (and in my case the GRUB issue would never have happened).

I find it hilarious when people except the fact that Linux literally runs the internet on servers that require 99%+ uptime while also requiring security fixes as they are released yet somehow the same OS requires permanent maintenance as soon as you stick a desktop environment on top of it.

This car will do 100 labs of the nurburgring until you stick a driver in it, then it only does 5 before requiring a full engine rebuild. Yeah, that makes total sense.

 

[Foxi4]

When you enter the enterprise space, you will know how expensive solve a freaking problem can be.

Also not all Windows solutions can be fixed without a reinstall sadly.

You’re absolutely right, and that’s where Linux comes in. It is trivial to create one installation of a Linux-type OS with all the bells and whistles a purpose-built machine requires (even if it’s some real high-tech stuff that the average user would never, ever need in a million years) and then deploy that one image across a fleet of more-or-less identical computers. If one of those computers works fine, all of them will work fine and in a predictable fashion. In that sector Linux can’t be beat, it has all the levers and knobs to be coaxed into doing literally anything. That’s not how a desktop operates though, a desktop is in a constant state of flux. They’re all different and they change on a daily basis, with new devices being added or removed and software being installed and uninstalled all the time. Linux does not like that. Windows is the opposite (at least in the consumer space, you obviously have fleet deployment options for enterprise). It’s *not* elegant, and as you go along, it gets filled with bloat and junk, but it operates *in spite of that*. The comparison I like to draw is a custom NASCAR sports car versus a banged up family car. Yeah, your super car has an insane top speed, it can accelerate with the best of them and you will have zero issues with it… but it only turns left, because it was never set up to do anything else. If you try to turn right, you’re gonna be real surprised when it doesn’t, and you’ll spend a full weekend getting “turning right” working. The family sedan is crap, the radio’s 2 wires away from falling out, but when I turn the steering wheel it goes where I need it to go, 99% of the time. Which one are you taking to go grocery shopping?