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Steam on Linux Use Skyrocketed Above 5% in March

phoronix.com

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

#161
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The goal of kernel mode anticheat is to prevent other kernel-mode modules from tampering with the game's memory. This can kind of be done on Windows, as there's a pretty short list of kernel binaries, and all device drivers are signed. This is out of the question on Linux, where there's probably 100,000 distro kernel binaries floating around, plus the ability to build your own with whatever modules you wish. The only…

We probably could run Linux distros under hypervisor (just like default Windows install those days runs not on bare metal, but under Hyper-V). And then games that wish for anticheat start a separate VM in hypervisor with complete secure boot chain of trust. Would require GPUs to support SR-IOV though.

Maybe something using AI could be implemented - does a screenshot of your game e.g. every second and if it detects anything that would suggest cheating then it informs some central system and sends it a movie of you playing for the final verdict.

Of course this all is based on the assumption that the local AI can do this fast enough with enough precision.

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

#162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, if it's any indication, my sister, who is very much not a tech person, randomly asked me to help her install Linux Mint a month ago, and has been using it successfully since without needing to ask for help once (at least not from me, I suspect ChatGPT is getting a workout). That felt like an indicator to me. I only switched to Linux a year or two ago and haven't mentioned it to her once, so she got the idea fro…

There's a tipping point and we may be getting close. A few of my friends' kids & nephews have recently switched. Now that Valve seems to have solved the gaming compatibility issue, what Windows only software is left for teenagers to use that OS?

Also, regardless of what you think of LLMs, it makes tech support for Linux a whole lot more accessible to the average person. There is going to be less of an expectation now that you need to have a Linux guru on speed dial for the occasional weird edge case situation.

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

#163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will warn you, Ubuntu is basically dead now. Canonical announced that they are no longer using Debian as a base, but the unvetted packages compiled and uploaded by random people on Snap. Please switch to Linux, but find a distro that actually wants you as a user.

As somebody who has been around linux almost for as long as it exists, i must say that is a very strong statement. In real life: systemd IS useful, Wayland is becoming (has become?) the default, ubuntu is the most popular desktop distro family.

My Gentoo system is fully systemd and Wayland based from the start. Might sound like heresy to some users, but it was my decision from the start as I liked how they worked, that they are the future, and that you don’t have to wrangle shell scripts for building an OS. I had used systemd a lot via many Ubuntu servers before, so that helps.

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

#164

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…

Agree the numbers are not set in stone, but there is absolutely no denying that the Linux userbase has increased.

Proton's updates is a game changer, Windows 11's absolutely garbage buggy slop is frustrating more and more people. OS' like CachyOS and Bazzite etc making the transition far more approachable than ever.

The future is bright.

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

#165
post #129

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…

The "Nvidia on Linux compatibility" issues are something I wonder if I have side-stepped somehow either by lucky choice of GPUs, or lucky choice of Linux distros. Was/is this a distro thing, or an actual issue? Every Nvidia I've used [1] has worked perfectly, from the change for Xfree86 to Xorg, through the Compiz desktop wobbly window craze, to the introduction of GPGPU APIs like CUDA/OpenCL and recently Vulkan. I d…

If you have sufficiently old Nvidia GPUs, eventually drivers and supporting software stops shipping with distros. I have a bunch of older laptops that support in Ubuntu existed for like 10 years ago, but drivers stopped being updated and Ubuntu dropped them from their repos.

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

#166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you spoof user agent, you will get more captchas because it won't match their other fingerprinting.

You also get more captchas because you are on Linux, I see the Cloudflare one on my computer everytime.

Used to be worse. Something happened in the last year and I'm seeing way way less random captchas for regular use from a residential IP. In '22-'24 it used to be extremely common, now it's an event when it happens. Also went from mint to plain ubuntu so that might have something to do with it?

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

#167

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…

> the bluetooth connection on my PC was so bad that I had to stay within 3 feet lest the controller disconnects

Did you remember to screw in the antennas to the motherboard?

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

#168
post #40

This means nothing. There is so much up and down based on the active Chinese user base. PHoronox making headlines out of thin air again

M$ shareholders ITT are sweating bullets! Gaming has always been Microsoft's redoubt; without it they will lose the retail market entirely and be left with only the B2B market coasting on the soon forgotten legacy of what Windows once was, and eventually that will dry up too as Windows fails to capture the attention of a new generation of engineers and administrators.

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

#169
post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> CachySteamOS Where can I find more information on that? I use CachyOS but never heard of that. Googling didn't find a single result (surprisingly, not even your comment)

I think OP missed a slash

yeah, sorry

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

#170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will warn you, Ubuntu is basically dead now. Canonical announced that they are no longer using Debian as a base, but the unvetted packages compiled and uploaded by random people on Snap. Please switch to Linux, but find a distro that actually wants you as a user.

As somebody who has been around linux almost for as long as it exists, i must say that is a very strong statement. In real life: systemd IS useful, Wayland is becoming (has become?) the default, ubuntu is the most popular desktop distro family.

In my experience, Snap is frustrating to use, buggy and is opinionated in ways I don't like.

It's also a weird choice for servers running Ubuntu. I recall some CLI utilities being moved to Snap and you can't install them with apt anymore.

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