I have over 300 games installed and fully functional at least one from every year from 1989 to 2025. They all work. Some work better on Arch some (older 32 bit games from original CD) run better on Mint or wont install on Arch. Newer ones like Doom Dark Ages simply run better on Arch. Good luck installing DCS on Wayland though. Just dual boot an X11 focused distro and a Wayland focused one for best of both worlds. Windows hijacked my 25+ year old Hotmail account with their OneDrive ransomware and took my Linux EFI boot partition with it when it was promptly uninstalled. Every single game that is exclusive to Windows is a virus just like the OS that they run on. All cartooned out and loaded with microtransactions and invasive anti cheats. Ew. I would rather compute on a Texas Instruments calculator than install the Windows virus ever again. Id rather draw numbers in the sand than use one of their nasty products or play one of their ugly mass marketed games for dummies. Just absolutely wretched. X670E Creator Wifi, 7950x, 4080 Super, 64GB RAM, 1200W PSU, 4tb Samsung 9100 Pro gen5 nvme, 2x 2tb 990 Pro game drives, Arch and Mint share game drives and run the same files through Steam, Lutris, etc.
Linux
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Well, I for one installed Linux on my old surface book 2 yesterday, and my steam library works great on Linux. Even got better FPS.
So I became a Linux gamer yesterday and am super happy
switched to arch 7 or so months ago because of the recall spyware breaking the camels back. havent looked back since, i shouldve switched sooner i actually like using my computer now!
Roughly the same for me. I couldn't use Windows 11 on my old one and certainly wasn't going to put it in my new one. Gaming has been a breeze too, much easier than I was led to believe.
At this point it is just easier to play 90% of my Steam library on Linux. Maybe it's different for NVIDIA cards, but with AMD Microsoft is constantly trying to automatically installing old drivers and breaking things. No amount of registry edits seems to stop it. Hell, I had to open the command line just to install Windows with a local account only. Meanwhile, Linux is just click and play now.
@DelnitaCrane @mesamunefire The ONLY issues I've ever had with gaming on Linux was with x11 WM's and that's ONLY because my stupid Rog Strix is dual AMD/Nvidia and it doesn't play nice with x11. Are there fixes for my issue? no. why? because I'm an idiot that decided to buy a laptop with dual AMD/Nvidia.
On Wayland it works fine.
Where?! I filled the hardware survey and as they asked what OS I was on was hoping to see a stat about OSes, but no.
Spoiler: we are talking about 0.32% rise in Linux gamers.
Fuck windows, and copilot, and recall, and most especially OneDrive, and start menu ads, and unnecessary upgrades and ... And ... I gotta say I'm so much happier on Ubuntu, took me a little googling on some stuff and proton is still finicky sometimes, but man o man is it nice to have an OS which does what I tell it to.
I think it's important to point out that the percentages are not necessarily that meaningful. If more people are using steam deck and ditch their windows PCs for it, it's not an OS choice. It's a choice to move to consoles. Additionally, steam deck also competes with traditional console brands (PS, Xbox, switch) and might take some market share there as well, so that even if no one ditched their windows PCs, the total number of users using goes up and hence, the percentage.
I haven't had a steam deck in my hands, but I guess that it doesn't need the user to understand the underlying system at all. It can be used by the same unskilled people who use android or iPhone. So, one core requirement I think people need to have to install any other os is not met or even trained, which is actual knowledge about computers.
The reports about "increase in market share of Linux user's" is from my point of view, which is "I think it would be great if people would ditch windows and office" just a market bit. Useful but ultimately little meaningful.
Mhm, fair point. Although... I would say the steam deck's popularity and proof of viability as a gaming device is doing an immense amount of work on its own. I built a gaming PC ~2 years ago, and even as a long time developer and someone comfortable with a UNIX terminal I opted to get a copy of Windows for gaming, and had to awkwardly get to grips with it and find tools to get it playing the way I wanted.
It's only ~1 month ago that the prevalence and maturity of the steam deck (combined with Windows recall re-emerging🤮) finally had me at ease enough to give Bazzite a shot, and since jumping myself and expressing how happy I am with it, 2 of my long term "on the fence" friends have asked me questions and are starting to try Linux themselves.
Larger Linux market share, regardless of how it gets there, gives broad confidence in Linux, and also pushes developers and Steam itself to maintain Linux support and tools like Proton, which reinforces the cycle, even if it doesn't help us "kill Windows" for as long as users don't understand how to install it.
Perhaps the steam deck is a gateway drug for desktop linux?
The gaming industry will never recover when valve gets picked clean by the capitalist vultures that continously circle it.
The PS3 also ran on Linux and allowed users to boot into full desktop Linux. Didn't exactly lead to the Year of the Desktop Linux, did it?
Not every Linux user needs to ve comfy with terminal
If more people are using steam deck and ditch their windows PCs for it, it's not an OS choice. It's a choice to move to consoles.
They might have as well moved to Windows handheld or Nintendo Switch. They specifically chose the only Linux handheld on the market.
[Steam Deck] can be used by the same unskilled people who use android or iPhone. So, one core requirement I think people need to have to install any other os is not met or even trained, which is actual knowledge about computers.
Why is this a core requirement with Linux only? There are millions and millions of Windows users who have never installed an OS. Sounds gatekeeping to me.
They might have as well moved to Windows handheld or Nintendo Switch. They specifically chose the only Linux handheld on the market.
No, they chose a Steam console. A device with the same high convenience and low bar of entry as any other console, but with their (almost) whole Steam library on it.
Why is this a core requirement with Linux only? There are millions and millions of Windows users who have never installed an OS. Sounds gatekeeping to me.
Because conciously choosing and installing Linux is currently the requirement to run Linux on your PC.
If I go to the local electronics store I can pick up a Windows, MacOS or ChromeOS device that has everything pre-installed: OS, drivers, dependencies, all setup for instant usage.
And if I don't even know what an OS is, I'll get a Windows PC recommended by the sales people at said electronics store.
That kind of user experience is usually not available for prospective Linux users.
Unless they buy a Steam Deck, which is pretty much the only native Linux PC that's popular enough that a non-tech person would know it.
(Technically stuff like Tuxedo and Framework exist, but they are pretty unknown.)
Because most pcs bought don't have Linux preinstalled and usually only have the option of windows?
Glad to have made the jump! not even dual booting
Doesn't really help that the AAA scene has gone straight in the shitter, while the quality games are all coming out of the Indie scene.
What Valve is doing is making it easier for indie Devs to better support Linux. They don't have the funds for separate Linux builds. But with proton, it's a pleasure to make it work. So... It's great that quality games are coming out of Indie studios and they can be played on linux. Fuck the AAA
Are we going to make a big deal out of every 0.3% shift in steams stats towards Linux?
Wake me up when we're dealing in whole percentages.... That's when I'll be excited about it, until then this could just be a sampling bias. A rounding error.
Linux went from 2.59% to 2.89%, that's a 11.6% increase in the number of Linux users.
If it shifted .3% it would have went from 2.59% to 2.5977%.
The article is confusing 'percentage points' with 'percentage'
Another way of looking at it is that the Steam Linux user population went from ~3,418,000 users to ~3,814,000 users. So there are nearly 400,000 new Linux gamers.
If the survey hit for me 1 week from now I'd be on Linux, I'm literally setting my system up properly next Saturday
Fuck microsoft. Fuck the Idea that everything needs to make a profit. Essential stuff should be publicly owned.