Linux continues its rise in Steam Survey (www.phoronix.com)
from herseycokguzelolacak@lemmy.ml to linux@lemmy.ml on 21 Jun 11:21
https://lemmy.ml/post/32036248

Up to 2.7% in May 2025 from 1.5% in May 2023. Almost x2 in 2 years is very impressive.

#linux

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Buffalox@lemmy.world on 21 Jun 11:46 next collapse

The numbers are 3 weeks old, but they are still good. šŸ˜‹

unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de on 21 Jun 13:07 collapse

Yeah i was gonna say, this is old news. The +0.42% is the last spike on this graph.

<img alt="" src="https://uploads.golmedia.net/uploads/articles/article_media/15817071271748857369gol1.jpg">

gamingonlinux.com/…/linux-user-share-hits-a-multi…

Buffalox@lemmy.world on 21 Jun 14:24 collapse

To be fair the numbers are from June 1st, and are for the month of May. So a tad newer than you graph that state March as the latest.

unexposedhazard@discuss.tchncs.de on 21 Jun 14:56 collapse

Nah it just doesnt show the x axis label. The last spike is the May number. It has a point for each month, but that many labels wouldnt fit.

wewbull@feddit.uk on 21 Jun 12:15 next collapse

I’m quite impressed Arch comes out on top

spicehoarder@lemm.ee on 21 Jun 12:33 next collapse

I’m more surprised that Manjaro is so low.

N0x0n@lemmy.ml on 21 Jun 13:27 next collapse

They got hit by a lot of negative reviews and bad publicity those last years. Myself gave it a try last years and while it isn’t a bad distro from first impression… The fact that they add bookmarks into my firefox and Manjaro bootscreen at start gave me a strange feeling… Specially because this happend after the bios bootscreen hack. And I know this is not related but it still gave me strange gut feeling and always follow your guts !

Happy EndeavourOS user !

deadcade@lemmy.deadca.de on 22 Jun 10:39 collapse

Probably because they’re incapable of maintaining a distribution: manjarno.pages.dev

Scrath@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 21 Jun 12:38 collapse

I’m not honestly. As far as I know SteamOS is based on arch which should give it a massive boost in comparison to other linux distros just from the number of Steam Decks

that_leaflet@lemmy.world on 21 Jun 12:53 next collapse

SteamOS does not get reported as Arch.

wewbull@feddit.uk on 21 Jun 13:19 collapse

I would expect Steam to report Steam OS as Steam OS.

They managed to differentiate Manjaro to it’s own entry after all. It’s Arch based too.

deadcade@lemmy.deadca.de on 22 Jun 10:37 collapse

Manjaro is not Arch based. They use pacman, but they use their own repositories. They create a ton of issues that way.

wewbull@feddit.uk on 22 Jun 13:43 collapse

wiki.manjaro.org/…/Manjaro:A_Different_Kind_of_Be…

Although Manjaro is Arch-based and Arch compatible, it is not Arch.

Manjaro package repository

Stable branch - There is no solid rule indicating when Stable branch is snapped from testing. It can be anything from one to four weeks…

Testing branch - Testing branch is snapped from unstable at irregular intervals - …

Unstable branch - Unstable branch is synced several times daily from Arch stable

Manjaro Unstable is Arch Stable

taaz@biglemmowski.win on 21 Jun 12:15 next collapse

Two of my friends switched recently.
They had none to very little experience with anything Linux before, their previous win11 installs just over bloated and the copilot bullshit pushed them over. Both (indie/non-pop shooters) gamers btw.

This is the year of linux.

mio@lemmy.mio19.uk on 21 Jun 12:39 next collapse

Do they choose distros made for gamers?

taaz@biglemmowski.win on 21 Jun 13:01 next collapse

One is trying Bazzite the other one is just classic fedora

Danitos@reddthat.com on 21 Jun 17:16 collapse

Do they make much difference? Genuine question

MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz on 21 Jun 17:45 collapse

Sometimes.

They tend to make sure stuff that gamers care about are up to date and working.

You’ll likely need the newest kernels and software packages if you’re running the latest gen of GPU and/or CPU, to get the most out of them, or even get them to work at all.

Danitos@reddthat.com on 22 Jun 15:45 collapse

Wouldn’t a rolling distro be enough forma that?

MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz on 22 Jun 17:37 collapse

Some of it, yeah.

All a distro is, really, is a preset. It comes with some package manager or other, along with a collection of pre-installed packages.

The reason one chooses one distro over another, is because it’s closer to what you need. I could install arch, and spend a day setting it up exactly the way I like. Or, I could start with Endeavour, and get to essentially the same state in an hour.

I’m familiar enough with linux that I could strong-arm any install into doing whatever I need, but at times, to get from preset A to preset B, it’s faster to just start over from a known preset that’s closest to what I want.

Rolling releases typically mean the software available is recent, but that’s only one aspect of what your starting point could look like.

ā€œGamingā€ distros are going to be a preset that contains a bunch of configurations, defaults and software, that gamers typically care about. That steam is usually already installed, is an example of one such thing. The same way my mention of GPU and CPU support is only an example.

Maybe instead of ā€œThey tend to make sure stuff that gamers care about are up to date and workingā€ I should have phrased it ā€œThey tend to make sure things that gamers care about are easy to set up and supported, if not even ready to go, out of the boxā€.

Danitos@reddthat.com on 22 Jun 19:08 collapse

Okay, I see. Thanks for the detailed explanation.

JTheFox@lemmy.world on 21 Jun 14:01 collapse

I wish I could get my friends to switch. I even had one tell me they would rather use it if supported the games that don’t work (which of course are games with anti-cheat issues). But they at least recognize that Windows is getting quite bloated

MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz on 21 Jun 17:41 collapse

My first one to switch did so recently. Gave him an open offer to help get going if he ever got interested, then proceeded to just go about using my linux system for our multiplayer gaming and couch gaming hangouts.

It took a little less than three years from when I first switched for him to follow.

My sister is also on linux, has been since she took my gaming laptop as her own, and she never felt a need to switch it back to windows.

JTheFox@lemmy.world on 21 Jun 18:36 collapse

That’s actually similar to how I got one of my friends on it. I got a Framework 16 about a year ago and installed Linux on it with a very customized KDE DE and he seemed pretty interested in it whenever I brought it with me whenever we hung out. Offered him a hand in learning more about Linux, how to install, customization, different distributions, Steam Proton, etc. About 7-8 months after and he has a Framework 13 with Fedora Linux.

My other friends are just stuck on the gaming side of things sadly. The games that I dropped when I made the switch I really didn’t care a whole lot about anyways. Not the case with my other friends though.

However, I have my brother and my parents using it for their laptops as they don’t need it for anything else but a web browser and an office suite and over the last year or so there have been no complaints!

lordnikon@lemmy.world on 21 Jun 14:28 next collapse

It just goes to show you. The only way to get the Linux desktop market share up is not building. Something better than Windows we have been there for a while. It’s make hardware, put Linux on that hardware and sell it in a store. Avg people don’t change operating systems. They change computers. Now if we could just get steam decks in retail stores. It would be a huge.

bimbimboy@lemmy.world on 21 Jun 14:48 next collapse

Avg people don’t change operating systems

This is a huge argument, even Linus Torvalds said that many years ago. The average person just wants to buy a computer and use it normally for work, casual stuff or gaming. They won’t make the effort to change the operating system.

Now if we could just get steam decks in retail stores

We can also get the Steam OS on different hardwares, just like the Lenovo Legion Go S

graphene@lemm.ee on 22 Jun 11:54 collapse

There is a non-insignificant amount of people who just throw away their computer when something gets messed up because they don’t know how to reinstall windows. Not only do average people not know how to install an operating system, they don’t even know how to learn. Many people have help, techie friends and family, but many don’t, and they can sadly only be helped at scale.

meldrik@lemmy.wtf on 21 Jun 14:53 next collapse

Exactly. Linux will never become the majority OS as long as it’s not the default OS on retail PCs.

[deleted] on 21 Jun 17:39 next collapse

.

lordnikon@lemmy.world on 21 Jun 19:48 collapse

Which country is that it sounds amazing

[deleted] on 21 Jun 20:03 collapse

.

lordnikon@lemmy.world on 21 Jun 21:00 collapse

Ah that makes sense i know Brazil has laws to keep imports low. That’s why Brazil kept the saga mega drive active for so long. So having Linux on machines makes sense. Since it’s both an import and not an import at the same time.

[deleted] on 21 Jun 22:08 collapse

.

lordnikon@lemmy.world on 21 Jun 23:11 collapse

Very interesting I learned something new thanks

olafurp@lemmy.world on 22 Jun 16:55 next collapse

Soon Linux will be big enough that stores will offer a selection of operating systems. It might be possible already to ask for a custom built PC deal with a discount for no bringing your own OS or having them install it for you.

rumba@lemmy.zip on 22 Jun 17:18 collapse

It was tried a little bit in 2008 www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna23565020

Microsoft/Google would shit all over any retailer that dared to do that today.

That said, Bestbuy did have an OS2/Warp on the floor decades ago.

I think SteamOS will have a solid chance.

We need a distro that has a 0% chance to brick on a graphics driver update. That can flawlessly do a major release update without breaking things and can run GOG, Steam, Epic.

lordnikon@lemmy.world on 22 Jun 19:17 collapse

Yep i honestly think that’s why the steam deck is not available in retell in the US. MICROSOFT probably has a clause in place that would remove any license discounts from the big OEMs if their machines are stocked with Linux machines.

titey@jlai.lu on 21 Jun 15:06 next collapse

To the moon!

Tim_Bisley@piefed.social on 21 Jun 15:22 next collapse

I wanted to switch but then saw nvidia's drivers are even worse on linux than windows. Maybe once I'm ready for a gpu upgrade I'll go AMD and make the switch because it feels like if theres little hope of nvidia fixing their drivers for PC there is zero hope for linux.

golden_zealot@lemmy.ml on 21 Jun 15:29 next collapse

I’m using an Nvidia card on Debian with 0 issues myself and the driver installation was really easy. I’m curious what source you read stating that they are worse, by how much, and in what way. Do you have a link I can read? Thanks.

Tim_Bisley@piefed.social on 21 Jun 15:49 next collapse

Its primarily issues reported on the linux gaming subreddit. You can just do a search on that sub. One of the more recent posts that really illustrated how bad things were (to me) was this post: https://old.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/1l4ntj6/i_give_up_on_linux_for_now/

golden_zealot@lemmy.ml on 21 Jun 16:23 collapse

Okay, well to balance that anecdotal information with some more, let me put some of those bad points listed in context with what my experience has been on Debian 12 Stable with an RTX 3090.

  • Proton is great, and is really impressive, but you still must download several versions to expect running everything you want, and you must do trial and errors to find the most efficient version for you (fortunately, ProtonDB helps a lot)

Somewhat true, but protonDB is so accurate that I think I have only had to trial and error 1 or 2 games ever. Downloading multiple proton versions isn’t a big problem as they aren’t too large, and I have only ever needed either the latest stable release, or the experimental release. As far as actual game compatibility goes, when I moved to Linux I looked up every game in my steam library in proton DB to see what I was working with. The result was that:

95 of my games ran natively on Linux. 31 of my games were rated platinum. 73 of my games were rated gold. 12 were rated silver. 3 were rated as bronze. 3 were noted as unplayable.

  • Nvidia drivers greatly improved recently, that’s true, but you still have to download the latest beta drivers to run games through gamescope, and they are not on the official pacman repo, so they won’t upgrade automatically.

You have to add 1 repository for the drivers and then it upgrades when you upgrade as normal. This is like a 2 step process of editing a text file and then running one command. I have never had to use gamescope.

  • Now, let’s talk about performance. Yeah, I have an Nvidia card. Yeah, I know it’s bad for Linux. But that’s what I got, and I bought it very recently, so I won’t buy an AMD card for Linux now. When you talk with Linux users, they will always say that performance in games is way better than in Windows. Maybe that’s true in some games, but I’m afraid that’s only the case for AMD users. With an Nvidia card, the best you can get is the same performances as in Windows. And that is when you’re lucky. Then, if you want shiny things like HDR, or DLSS frame generation, you MUST use gamescope, and it will have a cost in terms of performances. And you will need trials and errors to get everything you want.

Performance on some games is better through proton and this is true even with my NVIDIA card. This is largely because where you lose performance on emulation, typically you are making up for it in leaps and bounds because Linux is not running 1000 telemetry processes and stuff in the background like Windows does. I have only played one game where the performance was noticeably worse. I don’t use gamescope at all. As far as I’m aware DLSS/HDR work fine (running armored core VI on ultra graphics for example looks and runs great and the settings seem to be enabled). As I said before, I only ever had to trial and error 1 or 2 games.

  • That said, don’t expect other shiny things like RTX HDR in desktop, frame gen out of games that natively support it, DLDSR, and many other things like that, to work in Linux. In fact, everything that is available through the Nvidia App or the Nvidia Control Panel won’t be available in Linux. You must be aware of that, because that’s very cool features you’ll likely never (or in a very distant future maybe) see on Linux. You won’t be able to use Lossless Scaling neither, and there is no equivalent in Linux - even in gamescope, at least for now (but maybe that’ll come, I don’t despair of seeing this happen in the future).

Parts of this statement are just straight up not true. When installing the drivers, you also install the NVIDIA Settings application which does not contain all settings from the NVIDIA control panel, but a subset of them. RTX HDR in the desktop for example does work, but it is just dependent on the window manager. Here is another reddit thread stating as much. I assume the OP of the thread you linked doesn’t really know what they are doing. If you want a windows-like experience you probably would be using plasma. Also I’m pretty sure lossless scaling has been a feature in protonGE since 2021, so if you really needed it for a game, you would just install that proton version and use its FSR feature there. I mean, this is stuff that comes back top link when I google for ā€œLossless scaling linux NVIDIAā€. The OP really doesn’t seem too dedicated to looking up their problems.

  • Hardware compatibility too, while very good, and even more so with Arch based distros of what I heard, is still a work in progress. For example, I didn’t found out how to make Dual Sense haptics work in The Last of Us Part II Remastered. Everything works, even adaptative triggers, but haptics won’t work. I know it has to
Tim_Bisley@piefed.social on 21 Jun 17:10 collapse

Thanks for the write up. I'll give it a shot and see what its like. Another point of concern was the amount of tweaking I'd have to do. I'm used to quite a few games in Windows not working well out of the gate but it kind of drives me nuts. So I wouldn't want more of that in Linux. My steam library looks like this: <img alt="" src="https://i.imgur.com/eIQoObm.png">

MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz on 21 Jun 17:56 collapse

This looks fine.

I have a massive library of various games, and three years in I haven’t really come across any cases where I want to tear my hair out.

If ProtonDB says a game doesn’t work, you’re not gonna tweak your way to having it run. If it says it does, and it didn’t run right away with no problems, you can usually just apply the fixes other users have found, and be off playing your game.

In fact things are often simpler than on windows, because all the fixes have been gathered on protondb. While on windows you have to google-fu your way to finding someone on reddit or the steam forums who has the exact same problem, and also figured out and posted the fix.

gerryflap@feddit.nl on 23 Jun 06:09 collapse

I’ve been using Linux with Nvidia for 10 years and it’s been a constant dumpster fire. The Nvidia driver constantly caused issues over these 10 years, especially during updates. Currently I’m having the issue that the entirety of Wayland, including all open programs, crash when I run out of VRAM because the Linux Nvidia drivers cannot fall back on RAM when running out of VRAM. It’s making my gaming experience very frustrating.

sgtlion@hexbear.net on 21 Jun 15:50 next collapse

I’m on Fedora - Nvidia drivers used to be an issue for me some years back, but since then it’s all automatic, I haven’t even thought about drivers since buying my 3060.

MyNameIsRichard@lemmy.ml on 21 Jun 15:59 next collapse

Using nvidia on endeavouros here with no problems. The drivers rebuild with every kernel update and it’s as smooth as gravy. Before external sync was merged, they were problematic on wayland but fine on xorg.

drasglaf@sh.itjust.works on 21 Jun 16:11 collapse

I used EndevourOS with Nvidia for years but one day an update brought a black screen and decided to use something else (downgrade didn’t fix it). I’m currently using Tumbleweed and it works well, but I kinda miss Arch… So I installed CachyOS in my Steam Deck.

crusa187@lemmy.ml on 21 Jun 16:19 next collapse

There are some distros which completely handle this for you, eg popOS. I game on Linux with a 3080ti and it’s ez breezy

utopiah@lemmy.ml on 23 Jun 04:56 collapse

Wish I could explain you in detail how that’s not correct but I’m actually going to play Clair Obscur on my 2080ti on Debian, sorry!

PS: been playing for years with NVIDIA drivers, including VR games, and sure it’s not 100% perfect but neither Windows drivers are. It sure is enough for me to keep on playing (and working) without major issue though. Anyway, gotta play!

BalakeKarbon@lemmy.ml on 21 Jun 15:58 next collapse

It’s a shame more developers don’t target Linux! Anyway I have been Steam gaming on Linux for about 10 years now and it’s amazing how good games targeted at Windows run through Proton. I have many games that are targeted for Windows and run BETTER on Fedora.

PushButton@lemmy.world on 21 Jun 16:23 next collapse

Everything that is highly CPU bound (I am looking at you, Path of Exile 1) or requires a lot of Disk access (I have no such friends) have a good chance to run better on Linux than on Windows.

ServerForget@lemmy.ml on 21 Jun 17:08 next collapse

As far as I can gather, Valve explicitly advises developers to avoid targeting Linux when building or optimizing for the Steam Deck, instead focusing on optimizing around Proton.

herseycokguzelolacak@lemmy.ml on 22 Jun 08:46 collapse

Elden Ring runs better on proton/wine/dxvk then it does on Windows.

thingsiplay@beehaw.org on 21 Jun 17:42 next collapse

2.69% +0.42%

Nice, the meaning of Life. This would be perfect, if it was 3.69 instead. But we can’t have it all, otherwise there would be no improvement possible and it gets stale.

BananaOnionJuice@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 21 Jun 17:58 next collapse

Those are rookie numbers Debian GNU/Linux!

Peter_Arbeitslos@feddit.org on 21 Jun 19:28 next collapse

Arch

!bogengemeinschaft@feddit.org

Tim_Bisley@piefed.social on 21 Jun 19:55 collapse

Google translates that as Intergalactic Bow Community =\

Peter_Arbeitslos@feddit.org on 21 Jun 20:00 collapse

That’s part of the fun

Mycatiskai@lemmy.ca on 21 Jun 21:06 next collapse

I installed it on a partition along side windows 10.

I installed openrazer to control my keyboard and the next time I loaded it up only the number keys worked.

I’m not sure what my next steps will be but I’m enjoying it other than this issue, it reminds me of the good old DOS days back when I was a kid.

Suffocate9920@lemmy.world on 21 Jun 22:09 next collapse

Installed Fedora Linux 42 on my gaming PC with Intel Arc B580. Completed Steam Servey. Selling B580 due to miserable driver support and moving PC from a gaming to home server(TrueNAS). Still have my Steam Deck which I won’t sell.

wasabi@feddit.org on 22 Jun 17:13 next collapse

Some interesting distro choices to be found in there. I didn’t realize CachyOS was so popular

GlennicusM@beehaw.org on 23 Jun 02:37 collapse

I have used CachyOS and I can confirm that it is decent. I might give Bazzite a try next though.

Tenderizer78@lemmy.ml on 01 Jul 11:25 collapse

I’m gonna dual-boot Bazzite and OpenSUSE once I get through a few games. I don’t trust Bethesda to not accidentally give me a VAC ban for using Linux, and there are three Itch io games I want to play first (Horror Vacui, There are Ghosts in these Stalls, Spookware, Corpse Ocean)