5 mo. ago • 95%

Why do posters say that increase in Linux Steam share doesnt count becuase its mostly steam deck users?

It's not the gotcha that they think it is. Increasing share of Linux, steam deck or not is progress. Any development or considerations made for the SteamDeck and its Arch based OS benefit the non SteamDeck Linux gaming scene too.

Mostly a stab at Reddit PCMR, Lemmy PCMR has a different vibe.

51 comments

I think the argument being made is that it doesn't mean more users are manually migrating to linux, because you don't buy a steamdeck because of its OS. You use steamOS because it comes with the steam deck.

However, users choosing linux over windows is only one aspect of the good news: Widespread linux use, intentional or not, makes it less likely that a developer will skip it as a platform "not worth the extra effort"

109
- Isn't that how most laptops are sold? People use Windows on them because they ship with Windows?
  
  34
  
  True, but there isn't really much of a discussion of users moving TO windows, as using windows is, on a broader scale, the de facto default.
  
  I'm curious how the linux share would be today if no PC ever was sold with a preinstalled OS.
  
  17
  
  I was going to argue against this but you have a point.
  
  I was originally going to call out the Linux laptops selling worse, assuming that people were more comfortable with Windows.
  
  But Chromebooks sold a LOT. So maybe the average consumer doesn't care as long as the laptop is easy to use.
  
  12
  
  Apple sells Mac computers in part because of the OS.
  
  Microsoft became a monopoly because it beat out most other OS vendors.
  
  ChromeOS and Steam Decks are being sold, in part, due to the OS capabilities to run the software people like.
  
  6
  
  Not really, it's been a while since laptops don't offer a choice for OS. Apple's overpriced crap excluded of course. You'll have to swap the OS after receiving that one.
  
  2
- Being a Steam Deck owner myself, it also exposes more people to the underlying OS. I think there's a fundamental misunderstanding that people who use a Steam Deck only ever use it in Game Mode, and that's simply untrue.
  
  I was convinced to buy one, because a user said they bought one for each of their kids as a stand-in for a laptop, and they would do their homework on it (in addition to playing games).
  
  And now, because of my personal exposure, I have Bazzite running full time on a laptop, and I'm testing a few other Linux distros to eventually replace my Win 11 Pro install on my main desktop machine.
  
  Those people should leave the purity tests and gatekeeping to the religious fundies.
  
  18
  
  I've never touched a steam deck nor its OS. How much of the underlying OS is exposed to the user? Is it easy to bring up a terminal emulator?
  
  7
  
  I switched my gaming PC to Nobara after seeing all my games run on the Deck. I may need to dual boot for a few but I haven't bothered setting the Windows install back up. Haven't missed VR enough yet.
  
  3
  
  "that's simply untrue"
  
  Until proven with actual usage stats I continue to believe it's an extremely small minority that uses the Linux part.
  
  2
- How do posters know why people buy their steam decks? I bought my steam deck because it runs linux, so their initial argument is kind of a non-starter
  
  5
- No, we definitely choose the Steam Deck for Linux.
  
  3
'you have to struggle thru a Linux experience like I did or you're not a real Linux user'

53
- 'I use Arch, btw'
  
  25
I've noticed some posters in these communities have that toxic attitude of superiority and exclusivity--they simultaneously want people to use Linux, but also take pride in their "chops" and look down on people who don't know as much. It's along the same lines as those rude or hostile responses to more basic questions. I haven't seen it as much here on Lemmy, fortunately.

34
- It’s a bell curve. Believe me, after spending my entire work day doing Linux shit as a SRE/Devop/cloud engineer over the last 12 years of my career, the absolute last fucking thing I want to do when I stop working is fiddle with one more goddamn Linux issue before launching a game. True elites don’t give a fuck and just want to play the damn game. You can spot a poser the second they take it too seriously and bitch you out for running vanilla mint or whatever
  
  5
  
  100% this, the more you know about Linux the less you care about the distro. Realistically I use Arch because I'm lazy and the AUR and wiki are fantastic, but the company laptop came with Ubuntu and that's what it will keep on running, I have servers running Debian, I've worked with devices running some flavor of Red hat, it's all the same, and whenever I see someone trying to be elitist for running Arch I imagine a 15YO living in their mom's basement thinking they're cool because they managed to follow simple instructions.
  
  2
Year of the Linux Desktop may never be a relevant measure, but it was Steam Deck and Proton that marked the transition for me.

The deck is awesome because it's Linux

27
- I'd argue it's awesome because it's a great product that lets you play games on the go.
  
  The huge win is that its running on Linux, and valve contributes to open-source with Proton!
  
  12
- Bought my child the Steam Deck and that convinced me to switch to Linux. Games were the biggest reason I didn't make the switch earlier and seeing how well they ran on SD helped me realize most of the games I play, will run just fine.
  
  3
My understanding is that it implies most Deck owners aren't using them for anything other than purely gaming, then switching back to Windows for everything else. I kind of agree with that point, sure there are more Linux machines out there, but people are still using Windows over them, if the Deck was a standard PC and people were ditching their Windows machines for it that'd a different story. That said, it still means more people using Linux at the end of the day even if just occasionally and in a very restricted way, make of that what you will.

24
I think it’s because generally speaking, thanks to the efforts of Valve with game mode etc to create the console like experience, many that have a Steam Deck don’t “use” Linux…they use Steam, they click Install and they click Play and that’s it.

19
- Does it really matter? How many Windows users’ usage just launch a browser and use that, aren’t they effectively not “using” Windows per se?
  
  13
  
  The point is that these people don't care or might not even know it's Linux in the background, the Deck could auto launch Steam in full screen mode from Windows for all they know.
  
  Hell, I'm tech savvy and I honestly don't care that it's Linux based, I would have bought it no matter the OS running in the background, for me it's basically a game console, anything that needs a regular OS I do from my PC.
  
  I would even have preferred to have it run a modified version of Windows because of the 100% compatibility with my library (I'm expecting a portable Xbox to come out at some point and to be exactly that).
  
  3
People are buying a game system that uses Linux. They aren't choosing Linux, and most of them aren't using it as an operating system of any sort aside from gaming. So yeah. It only half counts.

12
Because they are more concerned with the fact that devs aren’t making the games for Linux natively in most cases than they are with if you can play most games on Linux.

9
- I'm more concerned with native Linux ports often being worse than windows in terms of performance and support, succumbing to disrepair years later
  
  4
Yeah I don't get the argument either. Sounds like some Microsoft-bros not wanting to see a 3rd option for OS'.

3
Am I the only one, who thinks Linux gaming is a Valve/Steam walled garden?

0
- It's more of a white picket fence than a wall.
  
  2

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