Steam data reveals PC gamers shifting from Windows to Linux
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Comments242https://www.tweaktown.com/news/106795/steam-data-reveals-pc-gamers-shifting-from-windows-to-linux/index.htmlOpen linkView original on piefed.social
This is me. Always Windows for my gaming computer and when I built a new one recently, I went full Linux. No regrets so far.
Which distro did you go with? I'm looking at switching soon too
Bazzite.
I found it really easy to get started with. Although I’d recommend KDE over Gnome. I tried Gnome for a few hours before changing my mind and it was just a little too different from what I was used to.
I'm used to Debian so I prefer Gnome, but either way, congrats on being more skilled with Bazzite than JayZTwoCents!
Here's your commemorative psuedo gem!
Work computers had Gnome on Ubuntu, RHEL etc.
I installed my Debian with KDE.
That's honestly the way. Bazzite just works without tinkering. It doesn't eat into your game time with debugging. Plus KDE is very Win10 like, so it's all just familiar and easy.
I'm glad Bazzite is what it is, but I'm hoping some of y'all get interested in other distros in the next few years. There's several great options out there (and I don't want to say … have everyone wind up on Ubuntu flavors and be having the same conversation about corporate overreach in a decade with Canonical as the new Microsoft)
Eh, I already have a decent amount of skill with running other distros headless. When it's gaming time I prefer a solution that just works 99% of the time.
Yeah, I love tinkering, but I also love not having to worry about an updating breaking my system. Bazzite is almost boringly stable lol
Bazzite exists because of SteamOS, and SteamOS is Arch-based. If there's a danger of one OS starting to dominate, I'd still think SteamOS is more likely because it has Valve's backing.
I don't think there's much danger of all other distributions disappearing any time soon, even for gaming applications.
What I hope is that container-based atomic-type distributions take off. I've been using Linux for decades, and it's such a nice change to have an OS where I don't have to fiddle with drivers or the base OS.
Bazzite is Fedora based, not Ubuntu.
Yes, I know - but my concern is eventual capture, like Microsoft has done to GitHub or how IBM is 'partially closing' RHEL's source code. My point is that off were all in one basket (Bazzite) it's easier to be taken over and reigned in. Bazzite is fine, but I hope is not the only distro all the influx of Windows users settle on. There's a wealth of great projects - Garuda for example is a great gaming Linux distro.
:%s/Ubuntu/Fedora/g
Bazzite is a community-made distro.
if you miss iphone + cydia, gnome + extensions is max dopamine, plus with arcmenu (customizable start menu, many presets) and dash to panel (panel like windows/kde) it's basically like any other de.
Gnome is great on laptops, specially touchscreen enabled ones.
Though with extensions you can get it to behave very similar to KDE
The current gnome (3) is very different from previous versions. You might like a modern fork of gnome, like mate. Don't let something that has a gnome connection turn you off right away if all you've seen is gnome 3.
I... don't think Bazzite has a... mate flavor/spin/variant?
I think its just KDE or GNOME?
if on cachyos you get like 12+ de options which is nice when initially testing them all out, just demo each for a while
Thats neat, I didn't know that!
Yeah, a benefit of arch based distros is that they are much, much more customizable than other OSs... downside of that though is that there are a whole lot more bugs that can happen, whole lot more crazy custom solutions that may need to be figured out.
I've not used Cachy, but I have used Arch before... if the Cachy people can figure out a way to keep all that just generally more stable, honestly kudos to them!
Bazzite basically narrows its official support scope so they can focus on a feature set that 'just works'... I am sure I could figure out how to torture a Bazzite install to work with a non KDE / Gnome DE, but it would be a lot of work.
Or maybe it could set it up with the built in distrobox/distroshelf tools? Not sure, never futzed with a different DE in a distrobox.
Look at the desktop environment first. KDE is like Windows. GNOME is like MacOS.
Then look at some videos about how to get your GPU working on a distro you're interested in if you have an Nvidia card. AMD GPU works out of the box.
I would recommend OpenSUSE Tumbleweed. Excellent implementation of KDE, GUI tools to do advanced things, rolling release (i.e. constantly up to date) but also thoroughly tested. Rolls back easily if something gets messed up. This gave me the least problems starting and I stuck with it for over a year. It was great.
I recently switched and have distro hopped a bit, landing on CachyOS which I feel I’ll stick with for a while (though I’m very indecisive and a small part of me wants to change over to Arch). CachyOS is based on Arch but with more ease of use stuff on top, especially for gaming (they have a gaming bundle which is just one command and you’re good to go), plus I’ve heard it’s the fastest or one of the fastest out there. Bazzite is also great (Fedora-based), which I used for a bit, but I started to get into using the command line more and found immutability to be annoying. It does mean it’s harder to fuck up though, but I don’t really care if I break my machine (you probably won’t break your machine regardless, that’s mostly sarcastic). Pop_OS! (Ubuntu-based) is also supposed to be good for gaming but I haven’t tried it. Keep in mind, if you plan on doing more than gaming and decide to use the command line for downloading, most download guides out there assume you’re using something based on Ubuntu or Debian (you’ll see a lot of “sudo apt install _____”), for better or worse. If you scroll down a bit you’ll probably find stuff for Fedora and/or Arch but not always. That doesn’t mean you can’t get the program on those distros, just that you’ll have to either know where to look or download a different way, such as from a digital storefront or manually from the website of the program you’re getting. I’m still a beginner actively trying to get better, but these are all things I would’ve liked to know when I made the switch a little while ago. Another thing to keep in mind is Linux and Nvidia don’t quite get along as well as AMD or Intel. I have an Nvidia card and both CachyOS and Bazzite had no issues, but for whatever reason Mint didn’t like to run steam games, no matter what I did. I made sure to have all the drivers downloaded and looked up a bunch of guides but I never got it running properly. Bazzite just worked straight out of the box, and CachyOS works even better for me after a little tinkering. If you have any questions, I just recently was where you are now so I might have more relevant advice, though I’m certainly no expert. But I’d be happy to help.
Once you know the equivalent commands to search, install, remove, ... packages in your distro, problem solved.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying it’s impossible, just that if someone doesn’t care to learn, it might be more straightforward for them to chose something that uses apt. I’m a beginner and I use pacman no problem, but I’m willing to learn. Lots of folks aren’t.
exactly what I ended up on with exactly the same issues with Mint (and Zorin as well). Cachy and Bazzite just worked (bazzite didn't work on live image though), but yeah Mint just didn't work.
For anyone reading this: immutable does not mean you cannot use the command line, and you cannot tinker. It's just different, and you will need to learn a few new commands, etc.
Additionally, Bazzite comes with Distrobox where you can literally install any software on any distro (including AUR if you want). There's almost no limits.
I should’ve clarified that in my comment, you’re correct. I wasn’t trying to imply it wasn’t possible, just that a lot of people don’t care to learn new things and just want things to work like they’re used to, and the odd time they need to use the command line, it might be more straightforward if they aren’t using something immutable, for better or worse. Immutable has the upside of being harder to fuck up for newbies though.
I didn’t know about Distrobox, that’s really cool actually. I’m content with Cachy but if I went back to Bazzite I’d be looking into using that for sure.
honestly i see pacman/yay just as much as I see other stuff when looking at instructions, (paru is pacman/yay in cachyos for that stuff, pacman in cachyos is their own repos)
Cachyos is great if you want access to everything, debtap for the rare ocassion you need to install a deb, can install snaps and flatpak support easily, but you don't really need to mess with all that, mostly everything is available with aur + flathub (have to do one terminal line since cachyos doesn't have it by default)
Bazzite does have bazaar by default, which i like as the best flathub appstore, aur version stopped working for me.
You can access the AUR in Bazzite very simply by creating an Arch distrobox and installing yay
oh and gearlever to update appimages and make desktop files so it shows up in menus, i only use this for shutter encoder right now
FWIW I also switched last year and chose Linux Mint. It was smooth and easy.
I started work Bazzite but didn't want to be immutable. Then I switched to Garuda. Both have been super easy.
I just wanted to drop in and say I use Arch btw.. lol, there multiple things to suit your use cases, Linux has a few gaming flavors.
Same. Overall it's been a great experience, but it's had a few issues. Nothing making me even consider going back though
Switched to Linux Mint a couple of weeks ago. Been playing games for 30 years on windows. So far so good. Played The Drifter through Heroic without issue. Great game btw.
Got an 1080ti. I hope I won't run into to many issues.
the switch to linux felt like getting out of an abusive relationship
Linux is not a perfect rose-colored relationship but it's a mature one.
It does, like any good relationship, need some work. I have been using Mint as my main driver for the last couple of months, and even being a beginner friendly Linux it still needed some time to learn and google around. Now that it's set up i haven't run into anything for a long while.
I still run Windows on a rarely-used old laptop. Every time I use it, it reminds me how much that's true.
It is sad to see Windows get torn apart by Microsoft.
You don't have to like it but most people know how to use it
No, they don't, never have, and never will.
I would be surprised if 'most people' nowadays even knew what the 'Internet icon' does, since it's not a logo of Facebook/Instagram/TikTok...
Even before phones, people could open a browser and perhaps browse pictures.
The Office Suite is next level, attained by relatively very few.
While okay this is growth, it's not exactly meteoric. Hopefully the trend picks up steam (cough) as the win10 EOL approaches.
Lots think the gamers will switch over as win10 gets to EOL. I don’t think so. Most gaming machines need to be more modern tomsupport modern games, so they will likely stick with windows and move to win11. I think Linux has a chance to convert many with older PCs, but they won’t be the gamers.
Hell I switched to Linux specifically because I refused to get W11. I do have to agree with you though, the average gamer probably won't switch to Linux unfortunately.
They most certainly will not switch (or switch and not decide to go back after a few weeks) with the timing of the release of Battlefield 6, which requires Windows. It's an EA game, so I'm not touching that, but they're doing a lot of marketing and it's working.
This is exactly how it's going for me. I've been simply too lazy to move everything, test it all, and probably do it all over a couple times to find the distro I actually like.
I'm personally strongly considering switching when support for Windows 10 ends. I actually started testing the waters by installing Mint on an old netbook today. I game on PC, but the truth of why I'm considering changing is because I'm just sick of the crap with windows. Every new edition is just bigger, slower, filled with more bullshit. I'm just getting tired of disabling all the shit they want to force on me. I'm sure I'm not the only one, but of course this is just my personal experience.
I’m a gamer, and I ditched windows permanently early this year. shrug
I'm a gamer but on console. My PCs are all older so I use Linux on some of them..one still has windows for work software..it's glitchy enough on Windows so I haven't even tried wine.
Try it, you might be surprised. I played WoW under Linux like 15 years ago, and for a couple of patches WoW ran much better under Linux than Windows because of a bug in the GPU driver or something. The Wine folks handle buggy Windows software all the time, and might fix bugs that MS won't bother with.
This is just wrong. All modern hardware will work on an equally modern kernel.
However when it comes to games, some competitive multiplayer games that require kernel level rootkits might not run on Linux if the developers think gaming on Linux is cheating.
I always suggest cross referencing protondb with you game inventory to see if you would have any issues
No, you're misunderstanding. Linux supports new and old. Windows only supports newish. Gamers are more likely to be on newer hardware and so the end of win10 will still allow them to upgrade to win11. They won't have obscelecence. Older PC users will have forced obsolescence due to win 11 requirements and the eol of win10.
So, while I expect Linux use to rise with the end of win10, it won't be mainly gamer PCs. Gamers with a steam deck, already familiar with Linux might be included but that's a tiny demographic.
I think you underestimate the share of gamers that stick with hardware for quite a few years. I maybe I overestimate them. but I think there are tons of people who have computers not eligible for win11
I agree with this and would also like to add the current economic situation to the list. People have less disposable income to spend on buying a brand-new computer just because Windows says so. Especially outside of North America and Europe, people are much more likely to be running hardware that's multiple generations behind the latest hardware. I believe Windows 7 still holds the majority of installs currently in use, and end of life for that was 5 years ago.
Well uh... if that is month to month growth...
A year at .32% growth works out to about 4% growth, if that is rate is sustained for a year.
That would be roughly a doubling of linux marketshare in a year.
I dunno .32% in a single month seems pretty significant. Obviously it's not like Windows is going to go the way of the dodo but it's looking like Linux may be taking a permanent piece of the pie where it had no staying power before.
I hate to say it, but it's literally PewDiePie recording a video and showing young gaming fans Linux and calling it "cool". That's it. The guy's got 110M subscribers.
Maybe. But so what? Pewdiepie wouldn't have made the video if windows didn't have serious problems, and if Linux wasn't an incredibly good kernel to build an OS on.
That video highlighted that you don't have to be technical to use Linux, it's here, and it's ready for mass adoption.
It's about half a million active users. So, yeah, a tiny city's worth.
Though things often start snowballing this way and Windows 10 end of life is likely see see a jump.
Actually, it is meteoric.
Linux's market share didn't grow by 0.32%, it grew by 0.32 percentage points. It actually grew by 12.5% month-over-month. That huge. It went from 2.57% to 2.89%, which is only an increase of 0.32 percentage points. But that's because the starting value is such a small percentage. But, the number itself grew by about 12.5%:
2.57 * 1.125 = 2.89If it could keep up this month-by-month growth it would go from 2.57% to over 10% within 1 year. If it could keep it up for 2 years Linux would be nearly half of all Steam users.
On one hand, I don't think that would happen because the people making the switch now are early adopters and more adventurous users, so at some point it's going to slow down. On the other hand, I think adoption will speed up at some point once there's a critical mass of Linux users and Valve and nVidia start putting even more effort into Linux builds.
I think we'll see a bump in users centred around October, since that is when MS had announced support for Windows 10 ended. They have recently announced that you can (maybe) get into the Extended Security Updates program for a year for free, but that's perhaps too little too late.
If there's any company that can make money from users installing Linux instead of Windows, that October deadline is a great time for a publicity blitz.
So 2026 year of the Linux?
Relative, it is. Going front 2% to 2.32% (for example) is pretty good, though I don't know where these numbers come from because the latest I saw had Linux at about 5%, and growing by something like 50-100% per year (for a year). Sure, the total number compared to Windows looks small, but compared to where it was it's growing incredibly quickly.
Edit: Someone said that was monthly, in which case yeah, that's pretty fucking big.
I just had to change my expectations a bit (which might be a lot for some), but the end result is pretty good.
Always having bad Ping times in multiplayer games, helped out a lot with it.
No.
The internet in my country has high ping all over the place.
So I never had a good enough experience with Online Multiplayer games for them to keep me on Windows.
I wasn't playing online games most of the time anyway, before switching to Linux.
I do play Elite: Dangerous, but that works pretty fine even with bad pings and it works very well on Linux.
I switched to Linux so I could spend $200 more on actual hardware for my build.
Not arguing with your choice (props actually, I respect the switch) but it is possible to get a legit grey market key for w11 Pro for a lot less. I think I got mine for $20-30 in early 2024?
Edit: I should have noticed I was in the Linux group before I posted that, I thought I was still in the gaming one I guess! Not advocating windows to anyone, it's a terrible OS. But some people might need it for some things so I figured I'd share information that might help someone save a bit of money if they did. (Yes, there are other ways around that.)
I don't doubt it, but do you happen to have a source?
The only plus side I guess is I only use that computer for a bit of gaming and not for anything else, and i did manage to turn of automatic updates before they AI-ified everything. If I had more time and energy in my day I'd dual boot it, maybe some day.
So you’ve decided unpatched security flaws is better than learning a superior OS? I’m not much for gambling.
No, I just haven't had the time and energy to do something better. Happens when you're approaching middle age and have health problems.
Sorry to hear that.
Just so you're aware, it's super easy. You can even leave your Windows drive(s) the same if you want too if you're up for buying a new drive. Linux can access the data fine —though probably not the other way around, depending on the format of your Linux drive(s). I have a drive that's mostly media from back when I used Windows that just works like any other, but a worse format but that hardly matters.
If you're a gamer, Garuda, CachyOS, or Bezzite are good and take minutes to set up, and come with everything you need out of the box. Bezzite is immutable, so it's harder to mess up, but it also limits what you can do (which probably doesn't matter for you). If you do need help, which you probably won't because it's easier than installing Windows, you can ask and plenty of people will volunteer.
Thanks! I've actually done it before back in the days when Mint was quite new,and I'm a programmer by trade (although mostly on Mac) so I'm not too worried about it, but I don't have a second drive (and don't really want one given a 2TB NVME drive) so I'd want to do all the backups first, at least for important stuff like my friend and I's Minecraft server. For a computer I barely use it hasn't felt worth it. Most of my computer time (outside of work) is on my Mac laptop.
And then you have to continously fight it because it switches your default browser to edge or starts showing you ads out of the blue or record your screen every second or whatever the fuck those greedy bastards think of doing next...
Noooo fucking thanks, I switched to Pop for a year now and I'm not going back ever.
Even with Windows Enterprise, I don't trust Microsoft to not spy on me and fuck with my control over the machine. If it weren't for that, I wouldn't be planning on switching over to Arch SteamOS Desktop when it releases.
I've used Enterprise IoT for a while, which is supposed to be the cleanest possible build of Windows (except for the Chinese government special one) and that STILL somehow managed to introduce ads after updates, reset settings, force me to use the GameBar, and so on.
Yup. Just last night, my machine decided to reboot itself without permission. I want to do updates on my timetable - that means backing up my passwords and bookmarks, figuring out what third-party things I want to update like my GPU, and preparations. Being forced to update also makes me feel extremely distrustful of MS, especially since they plan on having AI to take pictures of our activities. I enjoy LOTS of hentai, and feel that it is likely for MS to give the Trump Regime dirt on people.
Just switch. SteamOS is specifically designed for the Deck, and other handhelds. It doesn't do anything special outside of defaulting to a handheld friendly view that you can't get in another distro. I would say it's probably going to be worse than one designed for desktop, if you're putting it on a desktop. Bezzite is pretty much the same as what SteamOS will be (with the option of desktop or handheld mode at install I think). Garuda and CachyOS are great for gaming if you want a distro that isn't immutable. They come with everything you'll need for gaming.
It's trivial to set up. Just switch. Stop creating an excuse to wait. SteamOS isn't special, unless you are putting it on a handheld potentially.
SteamOS is special in that it has the direct support and maintenance from Valve, but I agree with the spirit of your response
Yeah, but it doesn't do anything special. Sure, it's pretty much guaranteed to work for the Deck, but other than that you don't get anything out of it that you can't get elsewhere. There's no special sauce that Valve puts in. The only thing they put in that's special is Proton, except the contributions are open source and freely available everywhere.
All distros are supported by some group. Valve isn't particularly special in that, except it isn't their specialty like other distro maintainers.
If you're switching to Linux to avoid a huge corporation then you should do that —and Valve is a pretty damn large corporation. Sure, they're doing good things now, but people would have said the same thing about MS at some point in time. Don't build them up into something else. Use the best option, not just following some brand loyalty for no good reason.
Sure, but Valve specifically have a focus on a gaming experience, so if your focus is gaming, there's a good chance steamOS will provide timely fixes and updates.
Again, I don't disagree with the general sentiment of your reply, and I wouldn't personally bother waiting for steamOS, but there are valid reasons to want to specifically choose steamOS
I'd rather buy a high end noctua fan for my CPU then spend $30 on a windows license. Although I have bought those in the past.
You can get it for tree from them directly. They don't care about that upfront cost. They make money off your data.
I've never needed to activate windows on any of my computers since I just prefer Linux. But the gray market seems scary to me with the possibility of the key coming from a stolen card victim's wallet.
Is there any reason a non-dirty key would be available on the market? Does Microsoft do promotions or deals like that?
A ton of them apparently come from regional pricing, or from keys purchased by businesses. Windows offers volume licensing where you can buy bulk keys at a steep discount, basically. The business might not use all of them, and then they turn around and resell them. That's technically against the terms of the license, but afaik Microsoft has never bothered to enforce that.
I've also heard people will take the Windows keys off of older OEM towers and resell them. I have no idea how true that is, but it would also be against their terms.
It's not exactly likely, but Microsoft could probably just deactivate all of those keys at once if they decided to.
Microsoft doesn't give a shit to stop it, because they profit off your data. They give it away for free themselves. They don't care how you get it if you are on their system, and then they do everything they can to trap you. They don't make their profit from key sales.
Those are good questions that I don't have the answers to. Although from the research I did at the time it seems most likely they were purchased with regional pricing in a lower price region.
You aren't taking anything from anyone. It's just an algorithmically generated activation.
This is so easy it's kinda nuts, and there are multiple methods to activate. All you should need for Windows these days.
https://massgrave.dev/
Fuck microsoft. Fuck the Idea that everything needs to make a profit. Essential stuff should be publicly owned.
I want to nationalize seashores. It's unfair rich people privatized entire coastline.
Same with natural resources. WTF are they owned by corpos? Anything mined and drilled should be owned by all citizens
Make them rentable. I want a private piece of seashore for vacation. But nobody should be able to own it for life.
as sad as it is, that failed miserably in the soviet union. The soviets initially had way better computer but because all industry was publicly owned noone competed and noone bought computers which is why they fell behind the US.
There is a sensible middle ground that allows for the pressure-driven innovation of capitalism without its extreme and unfair exploitation. We just have to find it.
Bro, that's even worse.
how would that be worse?
everyone has the possibility to get to vacate on a private piece of seashore but noone gets to hog it and keep it from everyone else.
Commidification of nature is bad, mkay. I'd rather see beaches be labeled as public property, like in Oregon, Hawaii, or even Texas.
I disagree. Soviets were busy recovering from WW2 for decades while funding own allies. They were not in the position to splurge on non necessities.
But even with that - they supplied entire population with oil, gas, electric no problems. Utilities barely cost anything even in modern russia
In the USSR, private plots owned by collective farm families, averaging 0.25 hectares in area, provided 30% of meat, vegetables and milk, 33% of eggs, and 59% of potatoes in 1979.
Bet the land was taken better care of when its a family that owns it compared to some minimum wage workers hired by a mega farm.
Yes, although I was referring to the fact that every experiment in collectivized agriculture in the 20th century boils down to: A minuscule percentage of the plots were left to private initiative and those plots account for the majority of the total output.
No problems? I think some of the citizens that lived through the Soviet era would disagree with you there
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=2zpCOYkdvTQ%252F
People don't have a choice. Microsoft made W11 incompatible with a lot of hardware and Microsoft said, "lol, buy new hardware"
Giving nary a single fuck about whats best for their users.
I liked the comment going "Steam doesn't have data on PC gamers, only Steam gamers.", hinting at the seven gamers that stubbornly refuse to use Steam and still hunt for CDs, or old archives of shareware. They are people too dammit!
Came here to 2nd GOG, but there are a few other storefronts with their own game launchers & DRM similar to Steam (Ubisoft, Epic). Humble Bundle provide (sometimes a choice of) GOG/Epic/Steam keys depending on the game, and they also have a collection of DRM-free games you can download directly.
Still, seven CD-ROM game hunters is probably a good estimate..!
I get 99.999% of my games through GOG.
When the internet turns off/gets even more firewalled, the data hoarders will be royalty.
The change is even more dramatic if you consider only those users who use English as their language in Steam. Also, Linux adoption rate has sped up this year. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/steam-tracker/ collects various data about Steam usage. One of the charts (screenshot below) show Linux market share among Linux/English users and overall Linux market share. I added the red line to demonstrate how I see the growth. There's only few data points this side of the year, so my drawing is most likely wrong, but the growth starts around March. The green line is at 4.8% in January and February and 6.31% in July, so a nice 30% increase within about 6 months among Linux/English users.
EDIT: The post is now more in line with reality. Couple more data points:
Considering how people love to delay things until the last minute, I expect it'll sharply rise in October.
I know this because I'm one of those people. Linux on several PCs and servers for years, but I've been too lazy to format & rebuild my gaming PC to get it off win10 and onto Linux.
You'll switch and then ask yourself why you waited so long.
I run Linux in English (because translated Unix looks weird) even though I'm not in or from an English speaking country. Sorry for skewing the stats.
Thou shalt not be forgiveth! /jk
I might have slightly misunderstood what the information is about, but I also worded things in a wrong way. I edited the post to be more in line with reality, and added some more data points.
Could it be that Steam overcounts the users? I mean if you have a Steam Deck, do you now count as a Linux user, thus diluting the Windows share, even though you’re still (also) using Windows?
It’s based on devices. But, I wouldn’t consider it as diluting the Windows share. A user might have any combination of devices. Maybe they have PS5 as their home gaming device and Deck as their handheld device. They could also have Windows PC and Nintendo Switch. Or maybe they have Mac laptop and Linux desktop. I for one belong to the Linux desktop and Steam Deck camp. Steam Survey only tells how many Windows, Linux and Mac devices Steam users use, but, for example, not how many hours each type of device is used.
I'm really not far off. Once my Tiny11 install breaks, it's on to Bazzite.
Would recommend CachyOS, especially if you have a nvidia card
Good looking out, I'll check it out.
Had thought of Fedora with Plasma, have been.using Linux Mint for the last 18 months. any thoughts?
I've been using CachyOS for about a month now with no problems. Very fast and easy distro based on Arch, so it's "bleeding edge." I haven't needed to, but be prepared to tinker if an update goes south. I came from Bazzite and liked that well enough too, but I wanted better access to some softwares.
Let us know how it goes! Never tried Bazzite!
I installed it on my SteamDeck and have its non-gaming sister on my laptop and I love it.
I wouldn’t trust a premade iso like that. Get an iso directly from Microsoft and use an unattended autoinstall script to clean things up.
I respect that, but I built my own Tiny11 iso. You can do so as well here: https://github.com/ntdevlabs/tiny11builder
Folks gotta give me a little benefit of the doubt. I'm not raw-doggin' the modern Windows experience here.
I’m not saying just it for you, I’m saying so other people don’t just search “tiny11” and install whatever they find.
Your more nuanced response is appreciated.
I still think the unattended install script is a bit more transparent.
Fair enough. 👌
Personally running Nobara with my 4080, works great.
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.
0.3% overall. There might be half a million new Linux gamers on steam, but there's still hundreds of millions of PC gamers using Windows.
You can arrange the numbers how you want, the fact is that this is still a pretty small shift in the overall PC gamer landscape. I promise you, that's how any larger developer sees it. Their pool of PC gamers shifted by a fraction of a percent. A good chunk of those that they "lost" as potential customers, probably wouldn't have bought their games in the first place.
The demographic overlap for large studios of people who are intentionally using Linux for gaming, and people that are interested in their game, doesn't overlap much, if at all, I bet. Until we get their key demographic switching over in large enough quantities to threaten their profits, the majority of the industry won't budge from their windows centric views.
Look. I don't hate Linux. Quite the opposite in fact. I'm rooting for these stats to move in and significant amount. I feel that's an inevitable shift that will happen and until we do, we'll keep getting these articles, describing a fraction of a percent move in the overall numbers as if it's a huge culture shift for how people are playing games.
If you haven't seen it, maybe you should watch field of dreams, becasuse the main tag line of the movie "if you build it, they will come" definitely applies here. The larger PC gaming community, there is a statistically significant number of indie devs and indie studios that support Linux as a platform, even if it's just the steam deck they're building for.... Those studios just are not the biggest players in terms of revenue/sales... But they're the ones building "it". This is slowly but surely fueling the fires that will eventually burn down Microsoft's dominance in the gaming space. It's been a war that's been waged for literal decades, since before steam was a thing.
There will come a day when we will hit critical mass and the large studios will be forced to either accept that their user base is shrinking because they don't support Linux. That day is not today. We will need to see much more movement than a few percent difference before that happens. This isn't even a few percent. This is a fraction of a percent of the total.
So forgive me if I'm not excited by any of this. It's movement in the right direction, but it's utterly meaningless to the companies that could actually shift the industry to Linux on a large scale.
I'm not trying to convince you to cheer for this, I'm just correcting a common math mistake.
.3 percentage points. 11.6% increase
Those are two different things
Linux market share has been growing at increasing speed. Last year, Steam Linux market share increased less than 20%, while it has already gone up by 40% this year. There is still 5 months left in this year.
Steam OS handhelds are pretty much the entirety of the growth.
The market share of Steam Decks has been declining among Steam Linux users for at least over a year. Steam Deck users were 42% of Steam Linux users in April '24, and this year's July it's only 28%.
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/steam-tracker/
It's good to see people making a switch to Linux. But the real tell will be in finding out how many of those people actually stick long term.
Dual booting will likely be a part of it, and microsoft will do whatever they need to make sure the bootloader is broken constantly.
And that's exactly why my Windows install is locked away in VM hell. Fucked with my bootloader twice and I said never again.
I even set up a custom boot option that autoloads the Windows VM and passes through all USB and auxiliary storage devices in a lightweight Linux environment, so other than the brief Linux boot log, it feels exactly like a native install, 10/10 recommend
That possible for sure. But I don't see dual booting being as common as it once was. Owning an old spare computer is pretty common these days. Heck, you can even get a dirt cheap mini desktop off of amazon and a referb/used/spare monitor and have a completely fine old time messing around with different distros without a care in the world. And that's a far easier entry into Linux than dual booting anymore.
Dual booting has always been a pain in the ass. Unless you're a multiplayer gamer that needs kernel level Anti-Cheat it's easier to just swap over and suffer the transition.
Funny enough my reason for dual booting has nothing to do with anti-cheat I think, rather it's because a couple of my more graphically intensive games will randomly cause my entire system to completely freeze while I'm on linux and they don't on windows. (I also have a couple games that I would need to fiddle with wine to get them to work, but the primary motivation is the system freeze)
That's a valid way too. It's just that a lot of people aren't really ready to dive in with both feet from the start. No matter how easy Linux has become or we might think its is. Change is scary and hard. And I think that's a problem that holds back many people yet today.
Its more about having the option. I'd be more comfortable going to linux if I knew that there would be a way to continue using something in a pinch, even if I just need to figure out how to fix it later.
author has never used desktop linux and doesn't really grasp what it is 😜
For someone out of the loop, could you explain what it is? What is wrong with desktop linux?
Nothing
Honestly? The problem is the people who use desktop Linux. The environments are fine. It's the people. Can confirm. I use Arch, btw.
I'm currently configuring my new linux dev/gaming machine. Thanks for giving me the push I needed, Microsoft!
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.
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
You can dual boot Linux to try it out.
That comes with its own risks because Windows has been known to destroy dual boot setups when doing updates. Not always, but it can happen and it's burnt people.
Dual booting also makes it harder when you decide to get rid of windows fully, because you might yourself accidentally screw your bootloader as part of removing windows.
The option I would personally recommend if you are unsure is to disconnect your windows hard drive, keep it safe, and install Linux on a separate drive. Then you can always drive swap back if you need and you know everything is safe.
You can even put the windows drive back in after installing Linux, and then just use your BIOS boot drive selector to switch where you are booting from. Each drive has it's own boot record in that case, so there's less risk of any accidents.
Disconnecting is good advice. What worked for me after windowa scrubbed the EFI boot was installing Linux and assigning its own EFI partition, most distros probe foreign OS so your separate Linux partition gets a chainloader entry to the windows EFI boot. You set BIOS to use Linux boot, Windows gets a handoff if you choose it in the Grub Menu and doesn't know about the other EFI partition. Kept my dual install save.
My main gaming rig is my last system not running Linux right now, I've been migrating my stuff over on my other systems for a couple months now (I keep getting distracted lol)
But not that I've got alts for the software I normally use on my main rig it's finally time, 2 months ahead of schedule.
Been on gaming kn Linux for a while now. Overall with Steam and Proton I rarely have any issues.
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.
I don't plan on moving to spyware11. just too lazy to reformat and start from scratch on everything so haven't made the jump yet.
You can always dual boot. That's how I started because, like you, I was too lazy to fully commit to wiping everything.
If you don't know what dual boot means. It means you can install Linux alongside Windows. So when you turn on your computer it asks which OS do you want to boot into (you can have a default if you turn it on and walk away too).
So essentially it's like having 2 computers in 1.
It's a good stepping stone into Linux without having to go to the full effort of starting from scratch with everything.
What I found amazing afterwards was how loud my fans run and how much my CPU is constantly working when booted into Windows. And then how quiet and fast everything was on Linux. It was nice being able to compare performance on the exact same hardware.
What's spyware 11?
microsoft makes it
also called windows
The deadline is 2 months away
The year of the Linux desktop, babeyyyyyy!!!
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.
Absolutely agree. My point is, that we people should consider these aspects because many comments I saw where a bit one sided as if this loop was already accelerating and 2025 would be the year of Linux.
Not every Linux user needs to ve comfy with terminal
That's not what I meant or said. But depending on your setup, the user might need to deactivate bios settings which are named differently or can at least be found in different areas of the bios. So that's a skill they need. Additionally they have to format a hard drive, which requires understanding that not all data is wiped if the data is for example stored in the cloud or a different drive. Additionally, they would have to decide for a distro and desktop, which can easily be overwhelming, as well as a fulesystem during installation... there are lot of skills most users don't have because they are no longer required. And seeing these skill requirements for an unskilled person can be a huge barrier and deal killer.
As much as i think people should have these skills and more, and that it is important to growth: "here is your computer, the OS us called 'mint', heres where your stuff is, here's your start menu yiu launch programs from, here's desktop shortcuts to the things you do, check emails and spread sheets to your heart's content.
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?
If I remember correctly, that require manual Linux install as well, didn't it? I think it was more complicated which was the reason I decided against a PS3. Never did it though.
I googled a bit about this, and you are right, it did require installing via Live CD, but you could also directly boot it from live CD.
The PS2 on the other hand had an official Linux on PS2 kit though that came with Linux pre-installed if I understand correctly.
Anyway, I wouldn't hold my breath that the Steam Deck will usher in a bright new future of Linux usage.
They might have as well moved to Windows handheld or Nintendo Switch. They specifically chose the only Linux handheld on the market.
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.
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.
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?
I might be misinterpreting your response but you seem offended. Not sure why, as it wasn't my intention.
Firstly, I am not aware of, as in "not well informed about" windows based hand helds. To my understanding, steam is quite dominant in the market, and advertising the steam deck through their platform. Why should someone bother with a windows handheld to install steam on the device, if steam comes with the steam deck? Why should someone with a large library move to another system? No, I think steam deck is the most comfo choice when you play games on steam and want a console or hand-held system without the drawbacks of other systems. I own a switch and deeply regrett buying it in 2019, now that the steam deck would allow me to play the same titles. It'd be a much better choice for me.
I don't understand your comment on gate keeping though. Having easily installed upgrades (win 10->11 for example) makes live easy. Moving to a different os nowadays is a much larger barrier compared to, say, the year 2000, when you had to buy a cd and format your entire system just to realize that drivers are missing and you had to actually figure things out. At the time, moving to a new version was complicated but forced people to educate them selves. Now, it's just a click to upgrade. The barrier is reduced, less gate keeping, great! But also less skilled people.
And it's not meant with disrespect. Live got easier, keeping the system updated got easier, people weren't forced to learn stuff and subseque vendor locked in. Now the skill barrier seems huge for many people and trying another os, even if it was apple, becomes unfathomable.
Again, it's great that Through the steam deck Linux development is pushed forward as fast as it does. My day to day users won't migrate unless they are very tech savvy or the enshitification progresses further and further. My employer just decided to move everything to SharePoint because co pilots helps us all doing our work so much faster... I'd have opted for something different and tried to reduce the vendor lock in... but that step would've been to large apparently.
The vibe I've been getting lately looking at Steam's push for Steam OS compatibility is that it might actually be worth trying a dual boot again next time I can bestir myself to mess with it. I've got W11 but managed to disable auto updates so I haven't received all the AI crap, but also means my OS is increasingly behind on security updates, which I'm not pleased about.
I don't care about the latest and greatest either, generally, so maybe even more worth it...although most of my new game purchases are indie titles and most of those only release for windows. So we'll see. I already have a strong preference for Mac support so I can play stuff on my laptop too.
Using valves proton means most windows games will run flawlessly (usually better) on Linux, so it's really a non issue if the games you want to play are "windows only" (unless they use some kernel level anti-cheat).
Also worth mentioning that if you did want the latest and greatest, that would be more of an incentive to switch to Linux.
Good to know!
Generally speaking, as long as the game doesn't have kernel-level anticheat, it'll work on Linux. Basically, you miss out on some competitive multiplayer games, but not all. Everything else works fine, you might have to check protondb.com for some specific fixes, but usually Steam handles all that stuff in the background. For GOG/Epic/itch.io etc. Heroic Games Launcher is your best option, though sometimes I have to use Bottles for certain games. Some people like Lutris, I haven't had any luck with it. But, for the most part, games "just work" on Linux now.
That's great news. A lot better than last time I tried to make it work.
Glad to have made the jump! not even dual booting
Does anyone know how core parking/scheduling is in Linux for 9950X3D cpus? AMD finally got it working near flawlessly in Windows, kinda don't wanna give that up.
AMD has very solid Linux drivers. I forgot which CPU it was recently, but AMD had to delay the release because the Windows drivers weren't ready, despite having Linux drivers already included in kernels.
The equivalent cppc driver is on Linux, along with a sysfs interface that lets you override cache (CCD) preference per-application, like you can via Registry on Windows.
Can't speak to that exact CPU - but Linux tends to have excellent support for AMD. It's why Linux users strongly recommend using an AMD graphics cards. I'd be surprised if windows offered a better experience
Only thing not working properly right now for me is Trackmania 2020, i get massive lagspikes due to it.using 100% Cpu for some reason.
I mean its ubisoft so thats probably why its shit but i like.the game and would love it if it would work properly
Funnily, my performance in trackmania is fine... But I have an entirely different issue - if at any point I open the Ubisoft overlay, from that point on, if I tab out of the game and back in, I'm unable to control the car until I open and close the overlay again. The UI accepts inputs normally, it's just the car that doesn't.
Previously I had an issue where the game would refuse to accept controllers being connected while the game was running - the button prompts would actually switch to controller style, but the game would refuse to accept controller inputs, and the controller wouldn't show up in settings.
But yeah, those are issues very specifically with that game, I don't even know how they managed that.
The game is also horribly optimized. Are you using open planet? You can install the tweaker plugin and reduce render distance, although this probably only reduces the load on the GPU. For me on steam deck it works fine if the maps aren't too big, at least I don't get cpu spikes.
Are you on an Nvidia gpu?
Yes why? 3070ti
I have had the most issues with Nvidia gpus. Have you double checked it didn't go back to the open source drivers after an update? Sometimes you need to download the proprietary drivers from Nvidia's website after every kernel update.
Mandatory F Nvidia
~95% on windows. Sub-1% shift to linux on non-desktop equipment. These are not the same thing.
What‘s non desktop equipment?
Yeah, I can plug a Nintendo Switch into a display but that doesn't make it a desktop.
No, because a Nintendo console is not a PC. Steam Deck and the other SteamOS devices have a literal "Enter Desktop Mode" feature and desktop use is (as seen in the promotional picture) an advertised feature.
KDE as I see.
Someone doesn't know what the Steam Deck actually is.
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
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.
Feels like the perfect time
I will be, too, sometime next year. instead of just doing the regular reset of windows, which as I recently learned is now an absolute pain in the ass instead of something quick and easy, I'm going to be switching over to Linux
I'm sure I'll still keep a windows PC around, but I'm pretty fed up with Microsoft just being so goddamn shitty at designing an OS for user experience
Why not now? Do you use the computer for school or work?
Linux is very easy to try, without even installing it. You can load Linux Mint on a USB thumb drive, then the hardest part is setting your BIOS to boot from it.
Just my two cents. I personally own a lot of different gaming devices running different platforms. I don't have an allegiance to one particular platform because::I just think they're neat::.
I don't think I'm unique in this case either. In reality it's always been "use the right tool for the right job" kinda scenarios.
With that being said, open source platforms have broken into the scene in a big way recently. I built a bd790i/radeon7800xt system a little while back and it has become my primary gaming platform. It runs Bazzite and it's always just ready to go with most (if not all) of my steam games running.
I basically use windows on machines running Nvidia hardware. Even on my workstation where Nvidia has basically decided their chosen platform is WSL2 and chosen not to embrace the larger Linux ecosystem completely (yet).
I do have a test box that constantly runs bazzite-dx where I am testing Nvidia compatibility. It's getting REALLY GOOD. however I just had a set back where Bambu studio flatpaks do not render 3d objects anymore. Flatpaks integration with Nvidia is a major pain sometimes as it can break with driver updates. I'm really new to this but fltapak needs the driver as well as the base system and then the flatpacked application needs to support it as well? It seems cumbersome. I don't have this problem with AMD GPUs.
AMD is better than NVidia, just because AMD did not spend years screwing the Linux community out of drivers. I do not need that additional bajillisecond of speed that I do not notice anyways just to use NVidia's bullshit. Seeing Linus Torvalds flip off NVidia with a very public "fuck you" is one of the most satisfying things I have ever seen. NVidia can eat a dick!
They did, actually. It's just that they did that a long time ago. I vividly remember a time when I avoided AMD hardware because, while Nvidia's drivers were closed source, at least they worked. AMD's drivers, when they worked at all, gave severely degraded performance compared to what that same hardware was capable of in Windows.
Fortunately, those days seem to be behind us now.
I was probably too poor to afford a computer that long ago, or at least to poor to be choosy about wjat I bought.
Right and I agree. All my recent hardware purchases in the last 3 years have all been AMD.
I have SOME Nvidia hardware right now and I'm sure other people do too. Unfortunately, AMD is lagging behind in some key scenarios that will hopefully be resolved in the near future. AMD knows this and doesn't compete in the high end currently (outside of Datacenter).
I do like to think that AMDs apus are the future and the death of the discrete GPU is imminent. I have been looking at things like the 395 AI MAX (poorly named CPU) for some testing but right now it doesn't make sense to hop platforms financially.
Indeed. For many applucations AMD is fine. I think there might be some issues if one wants to do CAD engineering.
Does that exclude steam deck users?
Good question. It's an actual survey (not analytics data) which asks specifically about PCs, not handhelds. https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey
Survey data isn't always the best data. Linux users might be more likely to take the survey in the first place, for example, while Windows users might not care to.
It's all Linux users, Deck included. But Steam Deck's market share among Linux users has declined from 42% in April '24 to 28% in July '25, and it looks like it has declined slightly faster this year.
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/steam-tracker/
"SteamOS Holo" is the name of the Linux distro used in Steam Deck.
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.
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.
bruh i'm using cracked Ltsc w10, so less bloatware and i dont want to use this shit or w11 anymore.
Got Linux on my laptop, literally just waiting a year to put it on my desktop (Linux does NOT like brand new hardware)
i have an i9 and a 5090 on linux
Yeah, unless they're trying to use a laptop with some weird piece of hardware it should work.
Even the newest generation of graphics cards worked fine within a week or two.
My hardware's new enough that my WiFi card doesn't work on Windows 10 (and won't, only Win11), but it works on recent-ish Linux kernels. Not contradicting you, but it was interesting to see.
That might be true for distros like mint, but fedora is usually fine with brand new hardware.
Would be mostly steamdeck
The survey in question is in regards to personal computers, so it depends on how the question was asked, and how people answered it. If people consider their Steam Deck to be a personal computer that runs Linux, I suppose they could answer that way. But, I don't think that's very likely.
Windows still is way farther ahead
Not really. Proton has done wonders for Linux gaming. The only games that really don't run have drm configured to block Linux specifically.
I think OP is referring to the percentage, not functionality. Windows, especially the office suites / GUIs are micht more refined. Someone somewhere pointed out at some point in time that backend development is often open source because developers are dedicated to the cause and the function. Designers, on the other hand, not so much (maybe they need payment because their main job pays less... I don't know.
In the end, the user uses the front-end, not the backend. And unless money flows into front-end development, for example, by a growing market of companies who want to switch away from office 365 for functional and financial reasons, we won't see front-ends which are attractive enough for people to switch to Linux for daily/ work related tasks.
I was referring to the percentage like you said
The Windows UI used to be solid back in the day but now days it is incredibly chaotic. Between the dark patterns and weird design choices it has become very cumbersome to navigate.
Windows has a 95% market share on Steam
100% of Steam Decks are not shipped with Windows.
That is a true statement
Most Linux people play games, but that was not why they started using Linux. When people who only want to game start using Linux, it will become like any other OS, where protecting the uninformed users from themselves and others will have take more priority, thus limiting choices and freedom.
Gamers will not make Linux better, Linux has been nice since most people using it has an interest in Linux or open source or programming or other values that align with the community. Meaning there is a good balance between pure users, and users who also contribute in some way ( active on forums, code, etc ).
Gamer values generally does not align or even intersect with Linux communities, and the scammers/exploiters/malwares that feed on gamers will follow them. So we get more pure users, and also pure malicious contributions (viruses, misinformation, scams masquerading as game tips etc)
Gamers as a customer base is literally what‘s driving GPU driver developments. Valve and their contractors are among the main driving forces in development of the FOSS Linux stack.
That is until companies move on to supporting other operating systems like FreeBSD or RedoxOS and leave Linux to its fate.
Until? So when will that inevitable event happen? They didn't care about the BSDs 25 years ago either. Mesa is not a Linux project. FreeBSD uses the same stack.
So far Linux is only growing, especially with gamers.
Your comment has no basis in reality. It looks like wishful thinking by a Linux hater.
It's insane what people will gatekeep about
I too have thought about the malicious side of things. It will be an issue as the marketshare for malware grows with the Linux base. The difference is, we have an open source community and people who can see the issues in the source code. If we all stay with open source and call out the trickery, the noobs will rally along with us. Also, if one distro becomes unsafe, we can move to another.
My first direct exposure to Linux was when I got a Steam Deck. Not long after, I formatted my laptop and installed EndeavourOS, specifically because my gaming experience on the Deck was so good.
Gamers have already made Linux better with the development of Proton.
Yep, and it uses literally less than half of the resouces to sit and do nothing as Windows does.
I have not had much trouble gaming on Arch Linix with Hyprland. That is a fairly tough combo in the Linix world and I still have not run into as much trouble. Honestly, the gaming is not worth it. Between console and Linux I can do whatever I want. My last windows machine is going to be replaced as soon as I have time to do it.