Valve published the results of the March 2024 Steam Hardware & Software Survey, revealing the most popular CPUs, GPUs, and operating systems its customers use to play various games.
I mean, I don’t know if it realllyyyy matters what the numbers are on paper right now. It matters how realistic it is for the average gamer to actually be happy buying and using Linux gaming hardware… and in my opinion the Steam Deck authoritatively demonstrates that capability, even after only the first generation of devices.
The fact is, it isn’t like most gamers actually like Microsoft it’s just Mac has always been way worse with games… so gaming has developed a default preference for Windows. Microsoft has treated it as its corporate mission to destroy any brand loyalty in gamers by repeatedly shitting on gaming and just assuming the gaming industry will keep choosing to build games for windows without doing anything to actually help foster that (besides anticompetitive sketchy shit probably).
Sure on paper, Linux is still a rounding error, but change can happen very quickly when it is simply a matter of a tipping point being reached, which oh boy if you like tipping points, well the 2020s are going to be chock full of em.
Yeah I believe the 2020s are gonna be paradigm shifting. But I think numbers do matter because the only way to get people to play on Linux is have other people play on Linux first to show them it’s good.
I get what you are saying, my point is that we aren’t in a time where the status quo should be assumed to continue indefinitely, the status quo is entirely unsustainable so we know changes are going to happen we just don’t know what they will be.
Microsoft could lose its foothold on pc gaming in a blink of an eye and totally lose the pc gaming market. It is only a couple of wrong steps away from potentially triggering that, all Linux has to do is keep getting more polished and keep presenting a more attractive alternative. The sea of change will happen and it will happen so fast it will make our heads spin, it’s just a matter of the right trigger events.
I mean, I don’t even think Microsoft gives a shit about Windows anymore as an actual operating system (rather than a surveillance device), I don’t think it would be impossible for Microsoft to decide to shift over to a modified Linux based OS and ditch Windows entirely.
Ideally for Microsoft they would buy Steam and the Steam Deck so they didn’t have to do any work, but oh my that would be an awful timeline.
My point is, be patient and take heart, change is coming.
I agree, other than the sea of change happening quickly I see it as a long grueling process of denial then some sort of retaliation and finally ends with adoption
I mean, I don’t know if it realllyyyy matters what the numbers are on paper right now. It matters how realistic it is for the average gamer to actually be happy buying and using Linux gaming hardware… and in my opinion the Steam Deck authoritatively demonstrates that capability, even after only the first generation of devices.
The fact is, it isn’t like most gamers actually like Microsoft it’s just Mac has always been way worse with games… so gaming has developed a default preference for Windows. Microsoft has treated it as its corporate mission to destroy any brand loyalty in gamers by repeatedly shitting on gaming and just assuming the gaming industry will keep choosing to build games for windows without doing anything to actually help foster that (besides anticompetitive sketchy shit probably).
Sure on paper, Linux is still a rounding error, but change can happen very quickly when it is simply a matter of a tipping point being reached, which oh boy if you like tipping points, well the 2020s are going to be chock full of em.
Yeah I believe the 2020s are gonna be paradigm shifting. But I think numbers do matter because the only way to get people to play on Linux is have other people play on Linux first to show them it’s good.
I get what you are saying, my point is that we aren’t in a time where the status quo should be assumed to continue indefinitely, the status quo is entirely unsustainable so we know changes are going to happen we just don’t know what they will be.
Microsoft could lose its foothold on pc gaming in a blink of an eye and totally lose the pc gaming market. It is only a couple of wrong steps away from potentially triggering that, all Linux has to do is keep getting more polished and keep presenting a more attractive alternative. The sea of change will happen and it will happen so fast it will make our heads spin, it’s just a matter of the right trigger events.
I mean, I don’t even think Microsoft gives a shit about Windows anymore as an actual operating system (rather than a surveillance device), I don’t think it would be impossible for Microsoft to decide to shift over to a modified Linux based OS and ditch Windows entirely.
Ideally for Microsoft they would buy Steam and the Steam Deck so they didn’t have to do any work, but oh my that would be an awful timeline.
My point is, be patient and take heart, change is coming.
I agree, other than the sea of change happening quickly I see it as a long grueling process of denial then some sort of retaliation and finally ends with adoption