Valve published the results of the March 2024 Steam Hardware & Software Survey, revealing the most popular CPUs, GPUs, and operating systems its customers use to play various games.
Also most gamers either buy a PC or build and install Windows in 15 mins, install Steam, and that’s requirements met for all gaming. The most frustrating part being the minute or two to setup a Windows profile, or optionally installing a software (once) to ensure latest drivers.
Everything after that short setup is, “I want to play that.” click…wait for download… Done. Play now.
If you use your computer for things outside of gaming and average use, I could see the argument appealing to 98% of gamers. But so far, it’s clear the stats are not “Gamers would like macOS/Linux” rather, “Some macOS/Linux users game.”
Per the survey site, SteamOS counts as Linux, and represents about 45% of linux users
(The second most used OS is Archlinux, representing 7.6% of the users)
Last time I installed linux on a new machine (a month or so ago) installation was pretty fast, and it came with steam out of the box
Also you basically have to flip a single setting to make every game go through proton, a setting you don’t have to switch in windows sure, but again, steam was installed automatically for me
It’s sad because even my friends that are knowledgeable in using Linux, or even a few friends that daily driver Linux, aren’t committed to gaming on Linux and keep a Windows box around for gaming…
I made the switch to fully Linux when I built my new PC, recently, and I haven’t had any more issues than I had encountered on Windows in years past. Maybe a little more configuration, but I very rarely stuck to default configuration with Windows, either.
Linux gaming has come so far in the last several years that it barely even feels different from Windows
For me having a ton of issues with windows crashing right when the Steam Deck was announced basically gave me no other reasonable option than to go all in on Linux, it was a bumpy road at first (I had tried it a little, but didn’t really understand the system, and was a bit overconfident with some settings) but I was able to play basically everything I wanted to play without to much issue, and it’s only gotten easier sense
About a month ago I installed windows on an extra drive, becouse there are exactly 2 things that I can’t consistently get working to an acceptable level: VR, and a mod manager. Both have ways to get them to work, but with kind of glaring problems
And I gotta say, I did NOT miss windows, I can’t wait until mod managers are a solved problem on linux so I can just overwrite that drive and be done with it (VR too but that’s less of a concern lately)
Windows dominance isn’t surprising but I was guessing it would be more like 3 or 4% because of the steam deck but I forgot to consider that even among windows users, the gamers using steam are a small percentage so 4% of general Linux market share is expected to be lowered when it comes to steam users. But I am more surprised that macos has a similar share to Linux, I always assumed it is lower especially with steam deck around.
I agree with this. The ease of use is the biggest thing to get right.
With that being said I recently built a small form factor PC and installed chimera OS on it for my TV in the living room. It works just like the steam deck. Very low maintenance. I’ve been spending more time gaming on that than my actual PC. It’s always up to date, ready to go and I start playing when I’m ready.
Change is slow and there aren’t many events that convince people to switch.
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Also most gamers either buy a PC or build and install Windows in 15 mins, install Steam, and that’s requirements met for all gaming. The most frustrating part being the minute or two to setup a Windows profile, or optionally installing a software (once) to ensure latest drivers.
Everything after that short setup is, “I want to play that.” click…wait for download… Done. Play now.
If you use your computer for things outside of gaming and average use, I could see the argument appealing to 98% of gamers. But so far, it’s clear the stats are not “Gamers would like macOS/Linux” rather, “Some macOS/Linux users game.”
You have to figure in Steam Deck users. Id say that a small percentage of windows users are gamers, as opposed to close to 100% of Steam deck users.
I wonder if the Survey counts Steam OS as linux or its own os.
Per the survey site, SteamOS counts as Linux, and represents about 45% of linux users (The second most used OS is Archlinux, representing 7.6% of the users)
Last time I installed linux on a new machine (a month or so ago) installation was pretty fast, and it came with steam out of the box
Also you basically have to flip a single setting to make every game go through proton, a setting you don’t have to switch in windows sure, but again, steam was installed automatically for me
It’s sad because even my friends that are knowledgeable in using Linux, or even a few friends that daily driver Linux, aren’t committed to gaming on Linux and keep a Windows box around for gaming…
I made the switch to fully Linux when I built my new PC, recently, and I haven’t had any more issues than I had encountered on Windows in years past. Maybe a little more configuration, but I very rarely stuck to default configuration with Windows, either.
Linux gaming has come so far in the last several years that it barely even feels different from Windows
For me having a ton of issues with windows crashing right when the Steam Deck was announced basically gave me no other reasonable option than to go all in on Linux, it was a bumpy road at first (I had tried it a little, but didn’t really understand the system, and was a bit overconfident with some settings) but I was able to play basically everything I wanted to play without to much issue, and it’s only gotten easier sense
About a month ago I installed windows on an extra drive, becouse there are exactly 2 things that I can’t consistently get working to an acceptable level: VR, and a mod manager. Both have ways to get them to work, but with kind of glaring problems
And I gotta say, I did NOT miss windows, I can’t wait until mod managers are a solved problem on linux so I can just overwrite that drive and be done with it (VR too but that’s less of a concern lately)
Windows dominance isn’t surprising but I was guessing it would be more like 3 or 4% because of the steam deck but I forgot to consider that even among windows users, the gamers using steam are a small percentage so 4% of general Linux market share is expected to be lowered when it comes to steam users. But I am more surprised that macos has a similar share to Linux, I always assumed it is lower especially with steam deck around.
Keep in mind, 4% is 1 in 25 gamers.
I agree with this. The ease of use is the biggest thing to get right.
With that being said I recently built a small form factor PC and installed chimera OS on it for my TV in the living room. It works just like the steam deck. Very low maintenance. I’ve been spending more time gaming on that than my actual PC. It’s always up to date, ready to go and I start playing when I’m ready.