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Nearly half of Steam's users are still using Windows 10
- ethagnawl 2y agoWindows 10 is the IPV4 of operating systems.
- 1stranger 2y agoI thought that was Windows XP?
- jl6 2y agoSomewhere in the unmentionable basements of industry, there are virtualized air-gapped XP boxes running mission-critical VBA.
- freeAgent 2y agoAt least as recently as 2014, I was aware of some random Windows 3.1 (yes) machines running in a corporate data center owned by a very recognizable Fortune 500 company. At the time, they were upgrading all their Windows PCs from XP to 7 and this 3.1 box showed up. I confirmed that it was, in fact, real.
- snovymgodym 2y agoProbably more common than you think. https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/ms-dos-and-windows-311-still-run-train-dashboards-at-german-railway-company-listed-admin-job-for-30-year-old-operating-system https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/ms-dos-and-win...
- josefresco 2y agoI think the lineage of "good" MS releases is: Windows XP > Windows 7 > Windows 10 Although for me personally I would add Windows 2000.
- caspper69 2y agoTrue story- when XP was released, all of the people "in the know" (among Windows users) used Win2k. Nobody wanted to upgrade to XP. It was called the Fisher-Price OS because of the way they made the GUI colorful with oversized icons/shapes and rounded corners everywhere. The old rule of thumb was that every other version was the good one, so people were naturally skeptical of XP (and after having seen ME, who could blame them). Not sure if that holds anymore, or if there is a good one.
- pjmlp 2y agoWindows is the IPv4 of operating systems. Every time a new Windows version comes out, since Windows XP, that there are forums filled with now the max exodus to Linux Desktop promised land is finally going to happen. Meanwhile not even Valve was able to convince game studios to port their Android NDK games to SteamDeck, they have to translate Windows/DirectX, and lets see for how long Microsoft will keep tolerating that. I have the Linux kernel all over the place at home, yet not one of them is a GNU/Linux distribution.
- tombert 2y ago> and lets see for how long Microsoft will keep tolerating that. Is that something we actually have to worry about? Wine has been around for more than 30 years in one form or another, and AFAIK Microsoft hasn't really taken any legal action against them. Are you saying that that has been the case because Wine has historically not been great, so Microsoft didn't perceive it as a threat?
- pjmlp 2y agoWine wasn't seen as a threat as SteamOS can be against Windows/XBox handhelds. Think of how Microsoft quickly killed the Linux based netbooks, when they really started paying attention, then the new tablets market did the rest.
- tombert 2y agoThat's fair, I guess I thought you meant suing out of existence. It's tough to say. Annoying Linux people like me tend to have horse-blinders on towards the rest of the world (hence the constant meme of the "Year of the Linux Desktop"), so it's tough for me to speculate with any kind of objectivity. That said, Steam Decks seem to be selling pretty well, and people don't seem to mind the SteamOS part of it. I think that there's a chance that Linux will be a permanent fixture for Valve now. I don't think they're going to overtake Microsoft, but I think that "Steam Deck" is a viable enough of a target platform for game studios to develop against that it's here to stay.
- michaelcampbell 2y agoSo was 7, and 95, in their day.
- ethagnawl 2y agoI haven't used Windows seriously in 20+ years, so I don't know, but did any of those upgrades also require hardware (not RAM or disk space) upgrades?
- michaelcampbell 2y agoNothing that Microsoft is demanding like the 10->11 upgrade, as I recall. Maybe from Windows 3 to 95/98, but I remember (perhaps incorrectly) that moving to 95/98 and/or 7 was pretty stock experience.
- sour-taste 2y agoSteam users are more likely to be on win 10 than others because they often spend more money on gaming rigs than people buying web browser machine. With the hardware requirements of win 11 (tpm, others) many gamers will not want to throw out their working machines to satisfy Microsoft's hardware demand.
- nottorp 2y agoWell 2 years ago when I built a new desktop i took great care to order hardware that works on windows 11. Then I read the stories saying 11 has even more telemetry that you can't disable, ads on the start menu, Edge that you can't get rid of... and when I got around to setting up Windows on it I ordered a Win 10 license. They're still available even now, I think. Win 10 does try to trick me into upgrading to 11 randomly on boot (full screen ad with a very hidden "fuck off and skip this" button) but so far I've managed to avoid it.
- 0_____0 2y agoI'm running Win11 but I had to check, because I forgot. I remember having to turn off a bunch of bullshit when I first installed Win on this machine but there aren't ads or anything. The most annoying thing it does is power cycle when I'm not expecting it, in order to update. Pretty sure there's a setting for that I haven't touched.
- demosthanos 2y agoThe power cycling is especially annoying for me since I dual boot and I (intentionally) have grub boot into Linux by default. The bright side is it encourages me to spend time in Linux by default!
- loeg 2y ago> when I got around to setting up Windows on it I ordered a Win 10 license. They're still available even now, I think. The licenses are the same -- you can install Win10 media using a Win11 license key.
- wmil 2y agoIt's strange that they are ending Windows 10 support so soon after they stopped selling it. Windows 11 came out October 5, 2021. Edge came out in 2015 and they kept supporting IE11 until June 15, 2022. Given that the major Windows 11 features were things like introducing a screen grabber to make your passwords and private data vulnerable to theft, it's no wonder people have resisted adopting it.
- 7bit 2y agoWhat's your point? Windows 7 had 11 years of support. Windows 10 had 10. Nothing strange about it.
- wongarsu 2y ago- Windows 8.1 had 7 years of support after Windows 10 was released. - Windows 7 was supported for 7 years after Windows 8 came out. - Same for Vista after 7 and Windows XP after Vista. - Windows ME had 5 years of support after the release of Windows XP - Windows 98 had 6 years after ME. - Windows 1, 2, 3.0 and 3.1 all had 6 years of support after Windows 95 came out. Only 4 years of support after the release of the next version of the operating system is highly unusual for Microsoft. They have always supported previous versions long enough that you could skip one version without running out of support, usually even two entire releases. Instead they follow the schedule introduced in the "Windows 10 is the last Windows" era where two new versions are released each year and each version has three years of support. But this only makes sense if you treat Windows 11 as a rebranded Windows 10 that got a new name for legal reasons. Which Microsoft pretends it isn't, so I don't feel compelled to follow that reasoning when it benefits them. They can't have it both ways
- slowmovintarget 2y agoMicrosoft is desperate to push people to their always on-line pay-per-boot operating system. They succeeded in pushing me out of Windows altogether. When I bought a new gaming / AI rig, I moved to Linux.
- 7bit 2y ago
- serallak 2y agoWasn't the steam survey heavily skewed towards the multitude of PCs in the internet shops in China? I doubt those are regularly updated.
- the__alchemist 2y agoHow do they deal with not having file browser tabs?!
- pjmlp 2y agoThe same way as they have dealt with not having them since Windows 3.x.
- rubee64 2y agoI use Clover
- josefresco 2y agoI didn't even know about this feature. Thanks! It was a minor annoyance with Win 10
- Lammy 2y agoI use https://www.stardock.com/products/groupy/ https://www.stardock.com/products/groupy/ which is just tabs for anything combined into any window you want.
- dailykoder 2y agoThat feature never made sense to me and I always disable it on my GNU+Linux, if I encounter it. Almost always when I want to open 2 different file locations, is because I want to copy files from one folder to another and because I am a lazy lad, i'll just do it by drag and drop. This just works perfectly fine with two windows. Not sure what I would need tabs for. But I also don't care if they exist. Maybe some users like them.
- quesera 2y agoDnD works between tabs too, FWIW. At least on macOS and Gnome and KDE file browsers. But I agree, I like to see both source and destination if I'm GUIing it.
- rideontime 2y agoI've been using Windows 11 without much complaint since its release, but off the top of my head, I can't name a single "feature" that would motivate me to upgrade if I were on Windows 10, besides "continued support."
- wlesieutre 2y agoIt doesn’t nag you incessantly to upgrade to Windows 11
- gs17 2y agoMy Windows 10 install doesn't do that either, although I have no idea why it gave up (AFAIK there's no reason why it wouldn't be compatible).
- duxup 2y agoThat happened to some of my windows 10 installs too. People complained about getting nagged and I thought they were being dramatic. Then windows decided it was my turn to be nagged and OH MAN I understood ... I have no good answer for exactly how that situation plays out. I swear it's not a local device setting.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- SunlitCat 2y agoThat happened to me as well. I get told in the windows update dialog thing to check if I am windows 11 compatible, which I pass but I still don't get Windows 11 offered.
- mcv 2y agoOn my laptop, it doesn't nag me, but it does nag my son sometimes when he logs in. My son is not admin, so I don't know why Windows bothers non-admins with this. At least I hope non-admins can't upgrade, but knowing MS, maybe they can.
- Spooky23 2y ago11 is pretty underwhelming. There’s some goodies for IT people… otherwise it’s Vista 2
- duxup 2y agoI loved using windows for a long time. I could strip it down and it performed and stayed out of my way. It wasn't ever pretty, I didn't like a lot of it, but I could just get what I needed out of it. Then it started to change, UI / UX had about 20 different flavors. I couldn't find settings anymore. Updates would change settings / undo my explicit settings. Eventually it felt like I was using an ADWARE OS. I fled to macOS and haven't looked back. I'm even ok with less local gaming to avoid the windows hassle. It's a bit of a sad thing for me. I do think fondly of my "old days windows" experiences in the sense that I was excited about updates and "Start Me Up" always reminds me of a special time in computing that I loved: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRdl1BjTG7c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRdl1BjTG7c
- freeAgent 2y agoSame. Windows used to be pretty good from my perspective. Then, Microsoft started stuffing it to the gills with spy- and bloatware, so I moved on. Windows 10 was ok, but 11 is unacceptable.
- dandellion 2y agoIn the last couple years I've used quite a bit of Windows and macOS (after many years using Linux exclusively), and I've found macOS to be my least favourite of the three. On the surface it looks similar to Linux, but it's all lies. My biggest grip is that very often I'll ask for a setting or solution to an issue and I kid you not, 80% of the time the response I get from mac users is you can't do that, but there's an app (and often it's a subscription based app). mac needs apps for things like mouse scrolling, placing windows, cleaning the keyboard without turning the laptop on, switching between windows, copying things to the clipboard, installing software... and the list goes on longer than I could possibly remember.
- duxup 2y agoFor me it's 100% of the linux I need so it's great there. I do agree the "there's an app for that" is heavily ingrained in the online user suggestions. The mac power users giving suggestions are often VERY much not knowledgeable. Oddly I do find there often is a command line solution that is better than an app ... but it's NEVER the first suggestion and a pain to find out sometimes. That is a pain, I need to turn a thing off, not an app with 20 features surrounding it ;)
- tombert 2y agoShows how much of a bubble I live in, most of my friends who play Steam are doing so on Linux with either a Steam Deck or just installing something like ChimeraOS on a desktop and plugging that into the TV. I've been so entrenched in the Unixey space for like 13 years that going back to Windows would be a pretty substantial productivity drain in the short term, but I'm not sure I'd want to anyway, simply because gaming on Linux has gotten so good, largely thanks to Valve. Like, it cannot be overstated how utterly good Proton is now. It's to a point where I almost never check compatibility, because it's more than likely going to work just fine. GameScope in particular is such wonderful thing in its own right, and it has genuinely made Linux the "Gaming OS" of choice for me. I know it's not perfect, my understanding is that there are some games that break with online play with Proton, but for the games I play I have been very happy with Linux.
- jhot 2y agoI'm approaching a year of exclusively gaming on Linux with very few hiccups. Most of it being on Steam Deck, but also switched to Bazzite on desktop.
- tombert 2y agoYeah I don't own a Windows computer anymore, all my gaming is on Linux now, and I haven't had any major issues. Granted, I don't really play new AAA games. Most of the stuff I play is either 10+ years old, or an indie game. Proton seems to be able to rock those just fine.
- amima 2y agoI am still using Windows 10. A major reason for me to not upgrade is all the media coverage of ads, user tracking, forced subscriptions and unnecessary AI features in Windows 11. Also, Windows 10 is just plain really good. I do have TPM and strong hardware. Windows 11 reputation is the main concern.
- smolder 2y agoLikewise. I have no reason at all to "upgrade" to windows 11 even though my current hardware supports it.
- Kapura 2y agoI tried moving to Windows 11, discovered that pinning folders in Explorer was bugged to hell, and moved back to 10. All of the features I care to use in windows have been in since Windows 7; moving to 11 broke one of the very few moving parts in my workflow. Horrible experience! Combine that with some of the smartest people I know at microsoft telling me that their current task is to add one iframe to the UI to inject more advertising (and that it had taken six months) and I am an active advocate on not upgrading. I have a test gaming system I'm going to install Arch on to prepare for the win10pocalypse.
- qwerpy 2y ago> smartest people I know at microsoft telling me that their current task is to add one iframe to the UI to inject more advertising (and that it had taken six months) This is so sad. A good senior dev can accomplish a lot of good for the customer in 6 months, but instead they're adding ads to an operating system so some Principal Program Manager can get another promo for making his VP's ad revenue go slightly up.
- blackeyeblitzar 2y agoHow’s the experience of emulating windows for gaming on macOS today? Like on a MacBook pro with their proprietary chip?
- JamesSwift 2y agoCan you not dualboot ARM windows? I thought that was a thing
- wappieslurkz 2y agoUnfortunately booting into Windows is not possible on Apple Silicon Macs yet. But there are many other options to run Windows or Windows software - including AAA games.
- Lammy 2y agoNot emulating the full OS, but I use Whisky Wine <https://getwhisky.app/ https://getwhisky.app/> to play TF2 / TF2Classic and it's fine.
- wappieslurkz 2y agoI use Parallels, VMware, UTM and Wine-based solutions for a bunch of applications and games. If you don't mind a bit of tinkering here and there the results can be pretty good.
- guax 2y agoMy PC was never updated because the capable 7700K was not supported by win 11 even with TPM. Microsoft dropped the ball hard on system requirements.
- Lunatic666 2y agoWhy should we wait for SteamOS? I’m using Pop_OS! on my gaming machine and can play all new games with the Steam compatibility mode. Baldur’s Gate 3 and Kingdom Come: Deliverance II work perfectly fine. I was quite surprised that there are no problems at all and happy that I can go Windows free now
- Zhyl 2y agoThe number of times I've seen people waiting for SteamOS makes me kind of excited that there's so much demand for an alternative to Windows, nervous that a SteamOS general release isn't going to live up to expectations and frustration that that "demand" isn't moving to other distros of its own accord or otherwise being captured by someone savvy. I think overall it means that "people", even if they have a more positive view of Linux than they did 10 years ago are still lacking the confidence and know-how to be able to make an actual switch. There are reasons, sure, but there's absolutely a pool of people right now who would be suitable for Linux and appreciate the switch but there just isn't enough activation energy there to get them over the line.
- mcv 2y agoSeriously, the moment there's a linux distro that really "just works", even with games on NVidia cards, I think Windows will lose a very large chunk of market share. So many people are sick of it, but most people still fear that stuff won't work right on Linux. Anyway, Valve is probably the most likely party to pull that off.
- pjmlp 2y agoFirst they have to convince studios to target Linux instead of translating Windows APIs.
- marssaxman 2y agoWhy, though? If the Windows subsystem for Linux can provide many people an adequate environment for dev work, why can't the equivalent Linux subsystem for Windows provide an adequate gaming platform?
- Night_Thastus 2y agoWindows 11 is a massive nothing-burger. The only annoyance is for those who are stuck on older hardware without TPM. As for everyone else, it's almost identical to 10 aside from one minor graphical change. Personally I don't get why so many are opposed to it.
- bigstrat2003 2y agoI'm opposed to it because it has ads. Simple as. And before you object, yes I know you can remove that stuff. But I shouldn't have to.
- Night_Thastus 2y agoI've never seen a single ad since getting it. Then again, I use a PiHole, and turned off all the optional stuff on the initial install of W11.
- zitterbewegung 2y agoI have a gaming computer on Windows 10 and I only really play Warframe so I plan on making it stay that way (I'm thinking about locking it totally down and not even browsing the web or move to a cloud service). I really don't like moving to Windows 11 especially with the features I don't want or need.
- GlickWick 2y agoWarframe works flawlessly via Proton these days. Probably don't even needs Windows anymore if that's all you do.
- cafeinux 2y agoMy gaming laptop is something like 11 years old and still runs the games I'm interested in with really acceptable graphics. I have installed Pop!OS on it and the combo Steam+Proton is great. I've kept my Windows 10 partition to run Skyrim with mods (last time I checked, it didn't run on Linux) and maybe the occasional Proton-incompatible game. I tried once to upgrade the W10 partition to W11, and got an error saying that my CPU was not supported. The day W10 reaches EOL is the day I finally delete that Windows partition. I could just keep it offline, but I don't really play Skyrim anymore (and worst case, I'll wait for Skyrim to run on Proton). As for the occasional game I can't run on Linux, I'll just pass my way. There's way too many games I still want to play, if editors filter themselves out from my reach, it's not my loss.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- petee 2y agoAnother reason is older versions of 10 have WMR support; many people who bought a HP Reverb G2 headset aren't ready for it to be a paperweight yet. A couple open replacement options are in the works but nothing is 100% compatible yet
- nalathna 2y agoI haven't upgraded because my ssd needs to be reformatted to meet install requirements and I no longer enjoy the hours of environment config that will entail
- phendrenad2 2y agoNot surprised. A lot of gamers are still using high-end motherboards and CPUs they bought 10 years ago, only upgrading the GPU and RAM to play newer games. They probably can't upgrade due to the TPM requirement.
- mcv 2y agoI'm surprised that SteamOS is not listed in the stats. Despite what the article suggests, SteamOS already exists. On the Steam Deck. Maybe the number of Steam Decks sold is too small to show up in the statistics? Or maybe it reports as Arch, which is the top category of Linux here. In any case, I'd like to express my gratitude for Steam's excellent Linux support. If anyone is going to usher in the year of the Linux Desktop, it's Steam.
- manchmalscott 2y agoI’ve been dual booting windows 10 and arch Linux. I only used windows for running Microsoft flight simulator. Instead of upgrading to windows 11, I’m switching to x plane, which has a native Linux build.
- maxwell 2y agoI don't plan to upgrade beyond Windows 10 and Mac OS X. If I gotta go to a version 11, it'll be X11.
- lousken 2y agoit's the last operating system
- michaelcampbell 2y agoI'm sure I'm not alone, but I'm not 11 because Microsoft won't let me. My game machine on W10 runs the games I want it to run well enough as well, which is nice.
- sitzkrieg 2y agowindows 10 LTSC forever!
- shaggie76 2y agoOur game (also on Steam) hasn't discontinued support for 7 yet and our usage stats from last Saturday Feb 8th 2025 are roughly: 53.6% Windows 11 43.8% Windows 10 1.59% WINE 0.79% Steamdeck 0.13% Windows 7 0.03% Windows 8