I bought a Steam Deck.
You are valid, and we love you
There is one dude with a Windows 8 laptop that turns it on once per month just to take this survey.
*8.1
Due to the optimizations Windows 8.1 is my favorite Windows version. When I compared it to Linux Mint 21 Cinnamon on my old (now dead) laptop, it performed slightly faster. It also somehow beat Windows XP which is what that thing was made for. Although a part of that could have been that half of the drivers only worked in XP, so it had more to load.
Maybe if they properly called it Windows 9, it would have caught on. It was definitely different enough from 8.
Maybe if they properly called it Windows 9, it would have caught on.
“Windows 9” was a no-go due to lazy programmers. Could have gone with “Windows Nine” though, which would have brought the naming in line with “Xbox One”
What does “perform slightly faster” mean? Boot time? App loading? CPU perf?
Yup. Boot time and loading of system apps. 8.1 was basically instant while XP and Mint had slight delay. Not a big deal though, just something interesting for being Windows. After all, it was made for tablets.
I also put Windows 11 on it despite being unsupported. That was slower, but still OK-ish with SSD. Definitely nowhere near Linux Mint though. The background processes were just killing the CPU. Thankfully, thanks to being made in 2007 the cooler could easily take 100% CPU usage. However, it would hover around just 6% with network disconnected. Hmmm…
The CPU was Core 2 Duo T7500 upgraded from T7100. I got it on AliExpress for €1. It seems some people were using them for… making keychains? Anyway, they were sold as functional.I wish laptop CPUs and GPUs were still upgradable. The GPU was GeForce 8600M.
Thats fuckin amazing.
I can still remember when we celebrated linux being at 0.8% and it was not long ago.
I think Linux reached 0.8% in 2018 iirc.
It’s definitely accelerated a bit in the last two years.
Alas, all it takes is for Microsoft to tone down the insanity before it will plateau again. So best hope for now is too increase it as much as possible by welcoming refugees before Windows 12 comes out. Maybe gain another percent or two.
The rise of Linux in this is absolutely driven by SteamOS and the Steam Deck, let’s be honest here. This narrative of people escaping Windows because of W11 changes that pretty much only get reported here is… a bit of wishful thinking.
The Windows 11 TPM requirement means a lot of people with fine computers can’t update from 10, and computer parts aren’t as affordable as they were 5 years ago. When Windows 10 goes end of life it will be my sign to go back to daily driving Linux.
Good for you, but that’s a meaningless statement from a home user perspective.
Windows 10 “going end of life” only means security updates will stop trickling in. Drivers will work, software will work. As far as your aunt Rita knows, nothing has changed on her laptop when 10 goes end of life, and if she tries to upgrade and can’t for some reason, she’ll just keep using what works indefinitely. The only time you may notice is if you get new hardware that for some reason doesn’t support 10 anymore at which point the hardware incompatibility issue is gone.
People will move to 11 how people always move Windows versions: by buying a new PC with it preinstalled. Because that’s how people interface with OSs in the real world. The only time normies go out of their way to change Windows versions is when the new version is generally perceived as replacing a crappy iteration, like the 8 to 10 jump or the Vista to 7 transition.
All of that is to say that it sucks for MS to actively use a subtle security downgrade as a motivator for people to update their hardware and software combo. Not because people will be pissed and move to Linux, but because they won’t move anywhere and there will be more vulnerable systems out there. Most won’t have any issues until they get new hardware, but it’s still bad praxis from MS’s position of stewardship of many millions of home computing devices.
Does it matter where it comes from though? Do you think regular folks are like: “i’m gonna play on my WINDOWS MACHINE”? They just use whatever came pre-installed.
Well, yeah, exactly. All the people showing up as Linux because they are just using the consolified Steam interface on their Decks aren’t exactly renouncing Windows and vowing to install Arch on their desktops forevermore, they’re just using the custom interface that came in the box.
Yeah wishful thinking but also a bit reassuring that this is then a meaningful if small shift. People are choosing Linux via steam decks or personally, and its been enabled via proton and wine rather than necessarily people fleeing win 11.
I do think win 11 changes contribute to people trying Linux more but I think it is Linux that is keeping people that is what has changed. I don’t see some huge move to Linux though - just its growing faster as it supports gaming well and is increasingly easier to use and maintain (which has been a long trend). But win11 being increasingly anti user can’t be a bad think for Linux long term.
I mean, see above for my estimate of how big that contribution is, discounting the effect of the rather unLinux-y experience of using the Deck.
Proton and Wine support help, although I genuinely would like to see more laptops shipping Linux by default more than I care about the Deck. I recently tried to move a laptop to Linux and the terrible support for custom hardware made it unfeasible. That machine is back on Windows now.
The underreported key to Linux on the Deck is that it’s configured for the hardware out of the box. In a world where modular, standardized desktop computing is not mainstream outside techie circles, Linux’s problem is that most normies on Windows aren’t on a desktop PC with AMD gear, they’re on some slightly but noticeably custom branded laptop still running its default Windows install.
Also people are terrified of the terminal. I think a lot of people who have been using CLI for years underestimate how intimidating it is for people who only use GUI desktops.
I hear this a lot, and… I’m not so sure.
I mean, for one with modern installers if you’re at the stage where you’re on the terminal as a basic user you are having to troubleshoot more problems than you should have and the issue isn’t the terminal but the stuff that isn’t working that lead you to need to use it.
But also… Windows has one of those, too. Two, actually. Every other troubleshooting page for Windows online has you open a command line and type some stuff up, when not messing with PowerShell. It’s not that weird.
I find that Linux users and communities have a tendency to overestimate how much of the issue is “the terminal” or “the interface not looking like Windows”. I don’t think it’s that big of a deal if the distro you’re installing works first time out of the box. The problem is when it doesn’t, because terminal or not, that’s a dealbreaker for most people.
I’m thinking about my husband watching me use Mint. I am comfortable with the command line, I use Linux (and Powershell) professionally so I am quick to jump into the terminal to fix something. Everytime I do he complains that he could never do that.
There are still a few things you need to do in the terminal, like setting flatpak permissions - something many users will want to do - that would benefit from a graphical interface. Linux is almost as good as Windows or Mac in this regard but not quite all the way there.
Looks like GoL has a plot over time. Linux adoption is starting to hockey stick, definitely above linear growth, this is getting exciting! I would guess, if it hits somewhere around 5-10% and keeps this hockey stick shape, we’ll really start to see the game industry justify giving it more attention.
This will come with both good and bad, I expect it’s only a matter of time before some game tries a native kernel level anti-cheat, aka root kit, on Linux.
I think Proton is the smartest thing Valve has ever done. Thanks to that, Steam is going to get about 90% of all the Windows gamers switching over to Linux.
I’m pleasantly surprised Linux is way ahead of OSX. This looks really good!
Hmm. What games are for Mac OS? I have never played a game on a mac ever. Not even seen what can be played.
Not many are officially supported, but there are a few. Baldur’s Gate 3 is one surprising example. Many Paradox games are also supported, like Cities Skylines. Stardew Valley, Terraria and Hades as well.
Impressed by all the folks on Win7 and 8.
Also surprised to see double the MacOS users
I look at this and wonder
Why gog galaxy and epic client were ported to macos and linux users still didn’t get native game binaries from epic?Edit:
I didn’t realize comments are formatted in markdownI so very much hope that the Linux gaming effect increases. Not only for gaming, but for the productivity world. If development of these ‘compatibility layers’ (Wikipedia) like Proton, Wine improves and maybe win-native software (thinking of CAD in particular) can be made working reliably on Linux using these packages, one or the other big player might adapt. That would be a much cheaper way of expanding the software’s range than developing and maintaining a native Linux port…
… and maybe I am too naive.
I’m doing my part.
More than 50% of people are using Win10 and M$ are about to stop supporting it. That’s trouble brewing.
We can push for 5% I can feel it!
I’m surprised Arch is that high compared to other distros.
Also interesting that people are actually switching to windows 11, everyone I know is staying on win10 as long as possible because they’re more used to the interface.
One of the things that got me to change my gaming desktop from Mint to Arch was the fact that you get the cutting-edge version of everything; kernel and amdgpu being the most important, but also getting the latest version of Lutris and things is nice too. Brought me from “usually about 50 fps outdoors in Elden Ring” to “usually about 60 fps” on the same machine.
Makes sense for a gaming machine to only include the services you actually want, which Arch enables. Supports my hardware better too - my audio gear works perfectly in Pipewire but is ropey in ALSA, so rather than “install Mint -> install Pipewire -> remove ALSA -> hope ALSA is gone”, the sequence is “install Arch -> install Pipewire”, which make more sense.
Other cutting-edge rolling release distros are available, of course, but once you learn Arch, it makes a lot of sense for gaming.
Don’t forget the AUR. It’s so much easier to use yay than it is to go to GitHub to manually check for updates/download/install a deb or rpm file.
AUR is reposnsible for the vast majority of -Syu into softbricks, and is little better than downloading random binaries (because you literally are most of the time)
That’s what timeshift and btrfs is for! Really though it takes like ten seconds to roll back and each snapshot only takes like 40mb. There’s a pacman hook to take a snapshot before updating.
AUR is just incredibly convenient for me. I don’t have to think about it, I don’t have to track anything down.
