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Coincidentally I saw the latest Steam hardware survey results[0] just about an hour ago which says that Windows is dropping and macOS and Linux are both gaining

Coincidentally I saw the latest Steam hardware survey results[0] just about an hour ago which says that Windows is dropping and macOS and Linux are both gaining: Windows -0.16% macOS +0.10% Linux +0.06% [0] https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Software-Survey-Welcome-to-Steam https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Softw...

rightbyte 3y ago
Is that year to year or month to month? Could not find any note on that? But then again the share increase compared to share of Linux users, is quite large. Interesting that only 0,06% are using Win 7 which I would name MS' last good OS.
- ziddoap 3y ago
  >Interesting that only 0,06% are using Win 7 I think it's interesting that there is that many people still on it. Mainstream end of life was almost a decade ago, Steam dropped support for it, etc. Is there anything that actually still supports 7?
- KomoD 3y ago
  > Is that year to year or month to month? Could not find any note on that? "Steam conducts a monthly survey to collect data", says it on the page. > Interesting that only 0,06% are using Win 7 which I would name MS' last good OS. Probably because steam for windows 7, 8 and 8.1 are EOL > As of January 1 2024, Steam will officially stop supporting the Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 operating systems.
- matteoraso 3y ago
  >Interesting that only 0,06% are using Win 7 which I would name MS' last good OS. Above it, the survey says that Win 7 64 bit is at 0.68%.
- wongarsu 3y ago
  > Interesting that only 0,06% are using Win 7 which I would name MS' last good OS. No DirectX 12 support for Win 7. And even games that don't require DirectX 12 now usually support Windows 10 and up. Sometimes because they don't want to test on older OS, but Windows 10 has legitimate API improvements that are worth taking advantage of. On top of that of course the general security reasons not to use an unmaintained OS release.
aquova 3y ago
I've learned to take the Steam hardware results with a grain of salt, sometimes they're stable, but then some months they vary wildly.
smith7018 3y ago
Surprised that macOS is gaining more than Linux. For some reason, I imagine there are more Steam Deck sales (Linux) than there are macOS users deciding to download Steam but maybe it's a numbers game.
- ascagnel_ 3y ago
  Games tend to ride the new release schedule more than most other forms of media (except maybe new movie releases in theaters), and there have been a few notable releases in the past few weeks. Apple had a big push with Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil 4 Remake in the past few months; if you already own those games on Steam, you got the Mac versions of those games at no additional charge. Also, Baldur's Gate 3 (which is widely regarded as one of the best games of 2023) got a native Mac release in Q4. As for it being a numbers game, neither Apple nor Valve release direct hardware sales numbers, so only they will know.
  - goosedragons 3y ago
    The Mac versions of Resident Evil 8 (not 7) and RE4 Remake are exclusive to the Mac App Store. They aren't on Steam.
- nordsieck 3y ago
  I think it's more about the games people want to play. I certainly wouldn't buy a mac to game on. But if you already have one and it runs the games you want to play (factorio, for example), then why not just use it?
- flohofwoe 3y ago
  The ARM Macs are actually quite decent for less demanding games, even when running under Intel emulation. FWIW I started to play a couple of strategy games on my Mac over the holidays because I was away from my gaming PC and only had my Mac available.
  - mschuster91 3y ago
    Good luck finding macOS games in the first place. I've had to pass on quite the few games because they were only made for Windows...
Zambyte 3y ago
It's very interesting to me that Arch Linux is reportedly the most popular distro among Steam users. I wonder if that's actually accurate, or if people who use other distros are more likely to decline the survey for privacy reasons, and people who use Arch like sharing because of the "I use Arch BTW" meme Edit: SteamOS != Arch Linux[0] [0] https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Software-Survey-Welcome-to-Steam?platform=linux https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Softw...
- sudosysgen 3y ago
  It's the most convenient to use for gaming, ime. The AUR and being always up to do date really helps.
  - bhdlr 3y ago
    Same - I use Arch on my desktop and SteamOS (arch) on steam deck, I have had 0 issues with game compatibility in ~ 2 years
- kukkamario 3y ago
  Isn't SteamDeck's OS based on Arch? So that probably is large factor.
- alargemoose 3y ago
  IIRC Steam OS is Arch based. So most steam decks will be running arch, and I bet those make up a hefty chunk of Linux “desktops” in the survey!
  - the8472 3y ago
    That's tracked separately. Arch is the biggest desktop linux there. "SteamOS Holo" 64 bit 40.53% -2.46% "Arch Linux" 64 bit 7.85% +0.04%
  - ekianjo 3y ago
    No it's not. It's counted differently.
Nextgrid 3y ago
Getting games to run on Linux often requires tinkering and the people who like to partake in this stuff and have the skill for likely run one of those “hardcore” distros like Arch. Those who don’t want to tinker and stick to already supported games would probably just run SteamOS to begin with (or a proprietary OS).
- steeleduncan 3y ago
  This hasn't been true for a while now. Many games have Linux builds, and for those that don't, Steam Proton works incredibly smoothly, and is integrated with the most popular game launcher, Steam. For the most part all you have to do to play games on linux now is click the checkbox to opt into Proton, and then click play. The biggest remaining issue is anticheats for some competitive games
  - ParetoOptimal 3y ago
    Somewhat recently Apex Legends got Linux support for easy anti-cheat and it works well. Hopefully it'll start a trend!
lolinder 3y ago
A few notes to keep in mind with that data: * That's a change from 96.56% on Windows to 96.40%. That's a small enough shift to be attributable to noise. * In the December 2022 survey [0] (one year earlier), Windows had 96.15% share. So to the extent these tiny shifts mean anything at all, the trend for Windows market share was actually up slightly year-on-year. [0] https://web.archive.org/web/20230103095707/http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/ https://web.archive.org/web/20230103095707/http://store.stea...

rightbyte 3y ago

Is that year to year or month to month? Could not find any note on that? But then again the share increase compared to share of Linux users, is quite large. Interesting that only 0,06% are using Win 7 which I would name MS' last good OS.

ziddoap 3y ago
>Interesting that only 0,06% are using Win 7 I think it's interesting that there is that many people still on it. Mainstream end of life was almost a decade ago, Steam dropped support for it, etc. Is there anything that actually still supports 7?
KomoD 3y ago
> Is that year to year or month to month? Could not find any note on that? "Steam conducts a monthly survey to collect data", says it on the page. > Interesting that only 0,06% are using Win 7 which I would name MS' last good OS. Probably because steam for windows 7, 8 and 8.1 are EOL > As of January 1 2024, Steam will officially stop supporting the Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 operating systems.
matteoraso 3y ago
>Interesting that only 0,06% are using Win 7 which I would name MS' last good OS. Above it, the survey says that Win 7 64 bit is at 0.68%.
wongarsu 3y ago
> Interesting that only 0,06% are using Win 7 which I would name MS' last good OS. No DirectX 12 support for Win 7. And even games that don't require DirectX 12 now usually support Windows 10 and up. Sometimes because they don't want to test on older OS, but Windows 10 has legitimate API improvements that are worth taking advantage of. On top of that of course the general security reasons not to use an unmaintained OS release.

aquova 3y ago

I've learned to take the Steam hardware results with a grain of salt, sometimes they're stable, but then some months they vary wildly.

smith7018 3y ago

Surprised that macOS is gaining more than Linux. For some reason, I imagine there are more Steam Deck sales (Linux) than there are macOS users deciding to download Steam but maybe it's a numbers game.

ascagnel_ 3y ago
Games tend to ride the new release schedule more than most other forms of media (except maybe new movie releases in theaters), and there have been a few notable releases in the past few weeks. Apple had a big push with Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil 4 Remake in the past few months; if you already own those games on Steam, you got the Mac versions of those games at no additional charge. Also, Baldur's Gate 3 (which is widely regarded as one of the best games of 2023) got a native Mac release in Q4. As for it being a numbers game, neither Apple nor Valve release direct hardware sales numbers, so only they will know.
- goosedragons 3y ago
  The Mac versions of Resident Evil 8 (not 7) and RE4 Remake are exclusive to the Mac App Store. They aren't on Steam.
nordsieck 3y ago
I think it's more about the games people want to play. I certainly wouldn't buy a mac to game on. But if you already have one and it runs the games you want to play (factorio, for example), then why not just use it?
flohofwoe 3y ago
The ARM Macs are actually quite decent for less demanding games, even when running under Intel emulation. FWIW I started to play a couple of strategy games on my Mac over the holidays because I was away from my gaming PC and only had my Mac available.
- mschuster91 3y ago
  Good luck finding macOS games in the first place. I've had to pass on quite the few games because they were only made for Windows...

Zambyte 3y ago

It's very interesting to me that Arch Linux is reportedly the most popular distro among Steam users. I wonder if that's actually accurate, or if people who use other distros are more likely to decline the survey for privacy reasons, and people who use Arch like sharing because of the "I use Arch BTW" meme Edit: SteamOS != Arch Linux[0] [0] https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Software-Survey-Welcome-to-Steam?platform=linux https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Softw...

sudosysgen 3y ago
It's the most convenient to use for gaming, ime. The AUR and being always up to do date really helps.
- bhdlr 3y ago
  Same - I use Arch on my desktop and SteamOS (arch) on steam deck, I have had 0 issues with game compatibility in ~ 2 years
kukkamario 3y ago
Isn't SteamDeck's OS based on Arch? So that probably is large factor.
alargemoose 3y ago
IIRC Steam OS is Arch based. So most steam decks will be running arch, and I bet those make up a hefty chunk of Linux “desktops” in the survey!
- the8472 3y ago
  That's tracked separately. Arch is the biggest desktop linux there. "SteamOS Holo" 64 bit 40.53% -2.46% "Arch Linux" 64 bit 7.85% +0.04%
- ekianjo 3y ago
  No it's not. It's counted differently.

Nextgrid 3y ago

Getting games to run on Linux often requires tinkering and the people who like to partake in this stuff and have the skill for likely run one of those “hardcore” distros like Arch. Those who don’t want to tinker and stick to already supported games would probably just run SteamOS to begin with (or a proprietary OS).

steeleduncan 3y ago
This hasn't been true for a while now. Many games have Linux builds, and for those that don't, Steam Proton works incredibly smoothly, and is integrated with the most popular game launcher, Steam. For the most part all you have to do to play games on linux now is click the checkbox to opt into Proton, and then click play. The biggest remaining issue is anticheats for some competitive games
- ParetoOptimal 3y ago
  Somewhat recently Apex Legends got Linux support for easy anti-cheat and it works well. Hopefully it'll start a trend!

lolinder 3y ago

A few notes to keep in mind with that data: * That's a change from 96.56% on Windows to 96.40%. That's a small enough shift to be attributable to noise. * In the December 2022 survey [0] (one year earlier), Windows had 96.15% share. So to the extent these tiny shifts mean anything at all, the trend for Windows market share was actually up slightly year-on-year. [0] https://web.archive.org/web/20230103095707/http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/ https://web.archive.org/web/20230103095707/http://store.stea...