6 ms·

I think there is a lot of talk (and this is good), but very little action. Market share is still incredibly low for LNX. I believe only a small subset of people

by dainank 5mo ago

I think there is a lot of talk (and this is good), but very little action. Market share is still incredibly low for LNX. I believe only a small subset of people actually attempt the jump from WIN to LNX (since most just want to play their games and run their programs without hassle) and then quickly realize that its tougher than they anticipated and swiftly return to WIN.

Doxin 5mo ago
5% on the steam survey though. The jump isn't quite as big from previous years as it seems as they did some corrections to the statistics this year, but 5% is nothing to sneeze at.
- npodbielski 5mo ago
  Exactly! Me personally in 2010 would never though about the time when one on every 20 gamers will be Linux user. That is huge IMHO.
  - veber-alex 5mo ago
    I wouldn't be too exited. Statistics like this are very problematic. For example, I have Steam installed on my Macbook pro and I occasionally play a single very simple game there. Does that make me a macOS gamer? of course not. The vast majority of games I want to play don't work on macOS. I suspect that most of those 5% are just Linux users who have steam installed and play a small amount of games. Some probably just installed it to check what's available and don't play anything. Everyone I know who is a "serious" gamer, as in exited about upcoming releases of AAA games is using Windows.
    - npodbielski 5mo ago
      That would mean that it still would be around 0,5%. If you want to split the hair probably 4,5% of this 5% is Steam Deck.
    - dainank 5mo ago
      Indeed. The bigger problem is also that consistently the most played games are multiplayer competitive titles with anti-cheat software that is only written for Windows (and sometimes MacOS). I suppose this issue will solve itself, once enough people start playing on Linux. Then developers will be forced to support that too in order to not lose too much of their player base, but we are still a far cry from this threshold.
      - Doxin 5mo ago
        I'm not convinced "most played" is the relevant criteria here. That's easily skewed by games which are time-sinks, like PvP games with draconic anti-cheat and DRM. That doesn't make those games more important than games which absorb less playtime.
rounce 5mo ago
What’s with the weird abbreviations?
- kwanbix 5mo ago
  He is saving 4 keystrokes out of ~400 by typing LNX instead of Linux.
  - freedomben 5mo ago
    But holding the shift key makes up for it, so seems like a bad strategy
    - dainank 5mo ago
      You are overthinking it. It is neither a strategy nor keystroke saving (although technically with shift its 4 keystrokes as opposed to 5 for Linux and quite a few saved for Windows). I just typed that without thinking probably because it looks better and reads a bit easier (subjectively).
- deleted 5mo ago
  [deleted]
Latty 5mo ago
This is true, but also the original comment still stands: Linux desktop usage outside developers was so low that it was barely worth mentioning before, so even a small uptick like this is a serious change, and it's how bigger changes start. I definitely don't think it's even the likely outcome, but for Linux to get serious traction this is how it has to start: power users but not the traditional developer crowd start actually moving, and in doing so produce the guides, experience, word of mouth, and motivation that normal people need to do so, alongside the institutional support from Valve to actually fix the bugs and issues. It remains to be seen if a critical mass will find it usable long-term, but if it were to happen, this is how it would look at the start, and Microsoft are certainly doing their best to push people away right now, although I suspect the real winner is more likely to be Apple with the Macbook Neo sucking up more of the lower end.
- sgbeal 5mo ago
  > Microsoft are certainly doing their best to push people away right now According to a speculative blog post by Eric S. Raymond in September 2020, Microsoft is literally moving towards replacing Windows' internals with Linux. Unfortunately, that post is now unreachable, but searching for "eric raymond article about windows being replaced with a linux kernel" finds many third-party references to it and summaries of it.
  - zbikowski 5mo ago
    Last phase of the desktop wars? by Eric Raymond: https://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=8764 https://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=8764
aqme28 5mo ago
As someone who did make the jump, it was actually a lot easier than I anticipated. I encourage others to do the same. The only games I can't play are some AAA multiplayer games I wasn't particularly interested in anyways.
- dainank 5mo ago
  I think for people who are browsing this site, it will certainly be easier than expected. For the average person, most likely not.
Forgeties79 5mo ago
I hope more and more folks who want gaming computers realize how turnkey bazzite is, especially if you’re team red. It’s pretty remarkable

by dainank 5mo ago

Doxin 5mo ago

5% on the steam survey though. The jump isn't quite as big from previous years as it seems as they did some corrections to the statistics this year, but 5% is nothing to sneeze at.

npodbielski 5mo ago
Exactly! Me personally in 2010 would never though about the time when one on every 20 gamers will be Linux user. That is huge IMHO.
- veber-alex 5mo ago
  I wouldn't be too exited. Statistics like this are very problematic. For example, I have Steam installed on my Macbook pro and I occasionally play a single very simple game there. Does that make me a macOS gamer? of course not. The vast majority of games I want to play don't work on macOS. I suspect that most of those 5% are just Linux users who have steam installed and play a small amount of games. Some probably just installed it to check what's available and don't play anything. Everyone I know who is a "serious" gamer, as in exited about upcoming releases of AAA games is using Windows.
  - npodbielski 5mo ago
    That would mean that it still would be around 0,5%. If you want to split the hair probably 4,5% of this 5% is Steam Deck.
  - dainank 5mo ago
    Indeed. The bigger problem is also that consistently the most played games are multiplayer competitive titles with anti-cheat software that is only written for Windows (and sometimes MacOS). I suppose this issue will solve itself, once enough people start playing on Linux. Then developers will be forced to support that too in order to not lose too much of their player base, but we are still a far cry from this threshold.
    - Doxin 5mo ago
      I'm not convinced "most played" is the relevant criteria here. That's easily skewed by games which are time-sinks, like PvP games with draconic anti-cheat and DRM. That doesn't make those games more important than games which absorb less playtime.

rounce 5mo ago

What’s with the weird abbreviations?

kwanbix 5mo ago
He is saving 4 keystrokes out of ~400 by typing LNX instead of Linux.
- freedomben 5mo ago
  But holding the shift key makes up for it, so seems like a bad strategy
  - dainank 5mo ago
    You are overthinking it. It is neither a strategy nor keystroke saving (although technically with shift its 4 keystrokes as opposed to 5 for Linux and quite a few saved for Windows). I just typed that without thinking probably because it looks better and reads a bit easier (subjectively).
deleted 5mo ago
[deleted]

Latty 5mo ago

This is true, but also the original comment still stands: Linux desktop usage outside developers was so low that it was barely worth mentioning before, so even a small uptick like this is a serious change, and it's how bigger changes start. I definitely don't think it's even the likely outcome, but for Linux to get serious traction this is how it has to start: power users but not the traditional developer crowd start actually moving, and in doing so produce the guides, experience, word of mouth, and motivation that normal people need to do so, alongside the institutional support from Valve to actually fix the bugs and issues. It remains to be seen if a critical mass will find it usable long-term, but if it were to happen, this is how it would look at the start, and Microsoft are certainly doing their best to push people away right now, although I suspect the real winner is more likely to be Apple with the Macbook Neo sucking up more of the lower end.

sgbeal 5mo ago
> Microsoft are certainly doing their best to push people away right now According to a speculative blog post by Eric S. Raymond in September 2020, Microsoft is literally moving towards replacing Windows' internals with Linux. Unfortunately, that post is now unreachable, but searching for "eric raymond article about windows being replaced with a linux kernel" finds many third-party references to it and summaries of it.
- zbikowski 5mo ago
  Last phase of the desktop wars? by Eric Raymond: https://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=8764 https://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=8764

aqme28 5mo ago

As someone who did make the jump, it was actually a lot easier than I anticipated. I encourage others to do the same. The only games I can't play are some AAA multiplayer games I wasn't particularly interested in anyways.

dainank 5mo ago
I think for people who are browsing this site, it will certainly be easier than expected. For the average person, most likely not.

Forgeties79 5mo ago

I hope more and more folks who want gaming computers realize how turnkey bazzite is, especially if you’re team red. It’s pretty remarkable