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Linux surpasses the Mac among Steam gamers

(arstechnica.com)
433 points Sporktacular | 3 comments | 04 Aug 23 00:36 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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015a ◴[04 Aug 23 05:12 UTC] No.36995730[source]▶
> But before you declare this a triumphant moment for desktop Linux, it's important to note that some of these Linux users are not, in fact, using Steam on a desktop. The Linux version "SteamOS Holo" 64-bit is the most popular reported, at just over 42 percent of the Linux slice of pie. That indicates that a huge portion of these Linux users are actually playing on Valve's Steam Deck portable, which runs Linux.

There's such a deep seeded, systemic bias against linux that it actually can never win, to any degree or magnitude, because the moment it starts winning we just move the goal-posts for the flimsiest of reasons to ensure it can't quite claim that victory.

Linux is obviously and clearly the most popular operating system kernel on the planet. Oh, no, that's no good a measure, servers are messy, let's refine it to most popular consumer operating system kernel? Oh... it, could also reasonably claim that title? No no, no Android, that doesn't count. Nope, No Chrome OS either, you can't have that, that's, well, that is linux, but its not. Just nice, pure, desktop linux, yes, perfect, arch linux, kde desktop, that'll never trend up and thus is the perfect new-new definition of desktop linu--wait hold up, I'm getting word this is, not possible, its actually SteamOS? Nope, kill it, that's not desktop linux either, kill it.

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johnnyanmac ◴[04 Aug 23 05:26 UTC] No.36995802[source]▶
I guess it really depends on what you expect out of a "user". I think servers and Android count but I think SteamOS is a bit tricky, because it's relying on a compatibility layers running Windows to run most games. This may not matter to the end user, but it isn't quite the developer revelation many imagine where suddenly tons of games and apps have a proper linux port.
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marcus_holmes ◴[04 Aug 23 06:04 UTC] No.36996017[source]▶
The article doesn't mention it, but you can flip SteamOS to Desktop Mode where it's just a normal Arch Linux desktop.

So it is proper Linux, as GP comment implies. Yes it's running games in Windows compatibility layers, but it is also a complete Linux system itself, with desktop. Definitely counts as running Linux.

And a decent chunk of those games are running on the Unity or Unreal runtimes. Do they count as "running on Windows"? Where are we drawing the line here?

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senectus1 ◴[04 Aug 23 07:58 UTC] No.36996864[source]▶
>The article doesn't mention it, but you can flip SteamOS to Desktop Mode where it's just a normal Arch Linux desktop.

this is fascinating..

Is it possible to install Arch linux and add the SteamOS layer and cut over and back again as desired?

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1. p_l ◴[04 Aug 23 08:05 UTC] No.36996916[source]▶
You can install any OS on it, and people have successfully recreated SteamOS behaviour on other distros (for example, NixOS).

You can also just go to the normal KDE Plasma environment from the steam menu and use it like normal Linux - or even install let's say emulators from Arch repos and add them to Steam then run them from SteamOS interface.

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2. marcus_holmes ◴[04 Aug 23 10:57 UTC] No.36998175[source]▶
So I think this is referring to the Steam Deck. Which (as you say) can support other Linux distros, it's not locked down to SteamOS. Or even other OS's if you wanted to.

I've only run SteamOS on my Deck, but afaik if you install it on something else then you can still flip it between the gaming mode and the desktop mode. In desktop mode it behaves exactly like you'd expect an Arch Linux install to behave, and you can mess around with it as much as you'd like. In gaming mode it's like a console and really only plays games (but isn't limited to Steam games - people have got it running emulators and all sorts of other stuff too).

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3. p_l ◴[04 Aug 23 22:44 UTC] No.37006863[source]▶
Yes, this is Steam Deck, and the "gaming mode" of steam deck is essentially a submode of Steam Big Picture mode (used for TV-like screens).