Thanks to all of Valve's effort with Proton, Steam Deck and their funding of people working on various other bits of Linux code like GPU drivers - the Linux share on Steam as of March 2024 bounced back to a near multi-year high.
  • @[email protected]English
    14•9 months ago

    Serious question, are linux users just as likely to share there system specs for corporate stats?

    Its also the platform for privacy enthusiasts so i think not meaning the actual number is higher then measured.

    • bjorneyEnglish
      18•9 months ago

      Could go either way.

      I ALWAYS share my stats for the steam surveys, because higher Linux market share = better Linux support

    • proleEnglish
      4•9 months ago

      Maybe I’m wrong, and I admittedly didn’t read the article, but can’t Valve see if a person is using the Linux runtime or Windows exe without needing to request access to other information? Like it seems like a very basic thing that Valve probably collects by default because it would take effort not to.

      Like when I access a website, it can instantly tell what web browser (and I believe OS, among other things) that I’m using. Unless I’ve gone in and altered my user agent. Why would using Steam be any different?

      • @[email protected]English
        3•9 months ago

        Consent has no relationship with technical ease.

        I don’t know that Steam doesn’t record it anyway, but sharing OS is explicitly part of the data they show you that they will take if you agree to the Steam survey, which certainly implies they’re not doing so if you don’t consent.

        The website situation is (arguably) different, as a User Agent is something your browser is giving the website on your behalf (in theory). From the website’s perspective, you are voluntarily sharing that information and any issues with that are between you and your browser.

    • @[email protected]English
      3•9 months ago

      Surely there is no way to install steam on linux and download stuff off that installation without revealing that you are doing it on a linux machine. I mean you are either requesting a linux build of the game from their server or you are downloading some wine/proton components or configurations. Right?

  • FranklinEnglish
    9•9 months ago

    Sort of a rant but…

    I hate that Discord doesn’t support Linux screen sharing audio by default. I hope more programs start to support feature parity for Linux.

    At the same time I wish there was more I could do to push alternatives forward because it’s quite clear that any profit driven company will succumb to enshitification and I think that Discord perfectly encapsulates that.

    That being said there was no way I could convince my friends or anyone else sign up for Matrix instead of Discord.

    • SparrowEnglish
      6•9 months ago

      A bunch of my gaming circle is making the leap to Matrix with the sponsored content that’s coming to Discord and the new vidoeo channels in Element.

      We have a few holdouts still, but I’m hoping they’ll join us eventually.