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Steam on Linux Use Skyrocketed Above 5% in March

phoronix.com

251–260 of 373 posts

Re: Steam on Linux Use Skyrocketed Above 5% in March

#251

A few weeks ago, I installed linux (Nobara, if you're curious) on my PC and hooked it up to the living room TV to use as a gaming console. I have absolutely no regret. I did it initially because apparently playing games on a shared screen is better for my kid. But I was pleasantly surprised by how smoothly Windows only games run on Linux. The whole experience has been great, and I don't think I'll ever go back. I hav…

> on my PC and hooked it up to the living room TV to use as a gaming console.

This is the way.

I did the same with an ITX AMD APU system. Thankfully well before the AI crunch. Running Debian because I just want it to work. Best keyboard for this setup is the Logitech Wireless Touch K400. Audio is through an older Sony receiver driving two of the floor standing Magnepan mid size speakers with a 10" sealed sub fed by a USB DAC. Mainly for music listening so no surround. The only thing I am missing is a nice wireless game pad.

I have a low power FreeBSD server running a 20TB raid z5 which serves all my media. I don't use any software contraptions like media centers or databases. I just mount file system and open a playlist in media player like god intended. Steam just works, though I haven't really gamed on this other than testing - that is what my desktop beast is for. I had issues with Hulu or whatever streaming thing in Fire Fox but had no trouble with any of them in Chrome. I know you don't get 4k but I don't care.

edit: > I will miss games that I can only play with mouse and keyboard

When I first setup the PC I had a full wireless KB & mouse, installed Half Life lost coast and played the demo using a TV table as a stand in front of the couch. NOT ideal but would work better with a proper adjustable TV table/tray thing. My friend has one and used it to work from home on his big ass 80+ inch TV.

Re: Steam on Linux Use Skyrocketed Above 5% in March

#252
post #233

Pewdiepie becoming an arch-pilled rice-maxxer who advocates Linux for freedom and gaming has surely had some effect. He's such a good sport he even swore off Photoshop and tries to learn to like Gimp.

I haven't used GIMP in a while but I had great experience with Krita, even with my display tablet it all "just worked".

Yes, Krita is definitely my preference, and aseprite for pixel art work (not open source, but source available and free of cost if you choose to build it yourself.)

Re: Steam on Linux Use Skyrocketed Above 5% in March

#253

Question: What percentage of windows gamers are actually Linux gamers who are using wine/proton or some anti-cheat workaround/VM that causes them to be reported as using windows when they are in fact running linux? Using proton, I regularly see crash reports where games want to report that I was running some version of windows, which is a result of how proton implements wine. I never send such reports as they are of…

This is from the Steam hardware survey. Steam doesn't run under Wine generally so this problem shouldn't come up

Re: Steam on Linux Use Skyrocketed Above 5% in March

#254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s excellent, thanks for the heads up! By chance, RPS covered the Mulholland Drive mod recently and I’m keen to try it on Bazzite. I would definitely prefer to go the GE-Proton route. To clarify, what do you mean by “fresh”? Just the most recent release or something more specific?

Fresh should mean creating a new prefix. For example, Proton-GE enabled wow64 in Wine by default, but it requires recreating the prefix to use it. Should be easy enough with Protontricks or even Winetricks.

Yes very much this. It is possible to modify an existing prefix but there are quite a few things to do, it's easier to back up savegames and game config files and then create it anew.

Re: Steam on Linux Use Skyrocketed Above 5% in March

#255
post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With controller sticks you control the 3D camera only indirectly -- by telling the rotation velocity (in very limited range) and for how long to apply it. With gyro you have 1:1 proportional camera position input, like with mice. It's more or less about possibility of developing muscle memory. With (linear) gyro/mice you could sharply snap camera to a point you see on screen without much overshoot. You could turn 180…

I have found that you have to keep it centered in order to keep it from moving/registering input, so it worked very similarly to an analog stick to me. Am I mistaken? I guess I just need to try it some more.

If controller isn't being rotated in the moment, then camera should be stationary regardless of controller orientation, yea.

I guess you've used some strange gyro to stick emulation (never heard of such thing, but sounds like it).

Re: Steam on Linux Use Skyrocketed Above 5% in March

#256

I've probably said this a bunch of times already, but based on my past experience, any analysis built on month-to-month changes in the Steam Hardware Survey should be taken with a very large grain of salt, if not considered outright useless for any serious conclusions. The clue is already in the article itself. The author notes that "part of the jump at least appears to be explained by Valve correcting again the Stea…

unpopular opinion: this can be explained by the social and monetary economics of the gaming ecosystem as a whole.

- Microsoft has worked tirelessly to make the windows compute experience an evermore intrusive and soul crushing experience for the average gamer. artificially outmoded hardware at a time of GPU scarcity means consumers cant comply with redmonds increasingly arbitrary hardware edicts even if they wanted to. at the same time, linux has become ever easier to install and use as an alternative. there is likely an inflection point for a lot of gamers that are just looking to access their library.

- console gaming has become hideously overpriced. madatory tie-ins with playstation network, high costs for all consoles, and the potential for the console stocks to simply not be available at time of release make for a frictional and frustrating experience. Microslop is embracing the same playstation style enshittification that routinely brings sony to its knees. neither juggernaut seems genuinely interested in the end user with the exception of Nintendo, whos quality control issues and pricing as well with switch hardware make it a nonstarter for anyone but the most diehard zelda fan.

- steam + linux offers a largely seamless experience for the casual gamer. steam sales are fun and engaging. the community is generally well rounded. gabe newell is generally well respected by gamers and visibly interested in gaming and the community. Valve has contributed significantly to Linux since their push to obliterate the Windows store and shows no sign of retreat anytime soon. Steam + Linux is free and works with your existing hardware in a time of high prices, inflation, and scarcity in the western world.

Re: Steam on Linux Use Skyrocketed Above 5% in March

#257

Question: What percentage of windows gamers are actually Linux gamers who are using wine/proton or some anti-cheat workaround/VM that causes them to be reported as using windows when they are in fact running linux? Using proton, I regularly see crash reports where games want to report that I was running some version of windows, which is a result of how proton implements wine. I never send such reports as they are of…

This is from the Steam hardware survey. Steam doesn't run under Wine generally so this problem shouldn't come up

Proton is a modified version of Wine. If the underlying game is sending a bug/crash report, it may "see" itself as running under windows as that is what wine presents.

https://github.com/valvesoftware/proton

"Proton is a tool for use with the Steam client which allows games which are exclusive to Windows to run on the Linux operating system. It uses Wine to facilitate this."

Re: Steam on Linux Use Skyrocketed Above 5% in March

#258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there an English translation for those not in the latest influencer language trends?

Ricing = making your linux desktop look pretty. arch = a 'techy' flavour of linux.

ahh... Now I'm connecting it to the 1990's car culture, where people modified Hondas and Toyotas... That's the term we used. I didn't really remember it, especially since political correctness wasn't prevalent back then.

Re: Steam on Linux Use Skyrocketed Above 5% in March

#260
post #7
post #4

When Windows 11 was force-installed on my main game development desktop, I was skeptical, but kept using it. I was annoyed at having to turn off all the tracking and noise (like news articles) When it updated and started shoving AI down my throat, with no easy way to turn it off and suddenly lots of data I don't consent to sharing getting used, 11 became the last Windows OS I'll ever use. Whenever the next version co…

On my wife's laptop, I've uninstalled MS AI 3 times. I'm just about to lose my mind. I'd have already wiped the machine and moved it to mint but the data in her one drive, bookmarks, etc, I'm sure migrating her over won't be a totally seamless experience. I also have not tested battlenet under linux wine in a long time, and I expect some level of anti-cheat to give me hell there. On all of my machines bar one, window…

You can install programs under Steam that are not distributed through Steam.

You can install battlenet under Steam and use all the proton magic to make it work. Starcraft 2 and diablo 2 both work very well (those are the only two I've tried). At least for SC2, anti-cheat did not cause any issues if it's even there at all.

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