←back to thread

Linux surpasses the Mac among Steam gamers

(arstechnica.com)
433 points Sporktacular | 1 comments | 04 Aug 23 00:36 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
Show context
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.

replies(39): >>36995745 #>>36995754 #>>36995802 #>>36995816 #>>36996131 #>>36996180 #>>36996519 #>>36996545 #>>36996734 #>>36996737 #>>36996821 #>>36996923 #>>36997130 #>>36997165 #>>36997388 #>>36997472 #>>36997547 #>>36997841 #>>36998245 #>>36998348 #>>36998488 #>>36998585 #>>36998591 #>>36998706 #>>36998886 #>>36999237 #>>36999755 #>>36999906 #>>36999939 #>>37000079 #>>37000120 #>>37000848 #>>37001352 #>>37001723 #>>37001744 #>>37002817 #>>37003649 #>>37007275 #>>37037781 #
1. DCKing ◴[04 Aug 23 15:54 UTC] No.37001723[source]▶
I don't think this is that unfair at all? What people are invested in is Linux desktop popularity. The old Windows vs Linux (desktop) thing. The Linux desktop has somewhat of a muddier definition than other desktops, but it's whatever free desktop stack people use - Gnome, KDE, or whatever other X.org/Freedesktop based stack people use.

If Linux is only popular on Android, Chromebooks, SteamOS, servers, embedded devices it strongly suggests to me that people are perfectly content with using Linux as long as they don't have to use the Linux desktop. (I know it's available on the Deck, but it's not the primary UI for it).

The Steam Linux numbers used to be indicative of Linux desktop popularity. If their large rise now is in large part due to the Steam Deck, that doesn't quite mean that the Linux desktop is getting popular. So it seems this is a totally fair nuance to me?