According to these new numbers from Valve, the Linux customer base is up to 1.96%, or a 0.52% jump over June! That’s a huge jump with normally just moving 0.1% or so in either direction most months… It’s also near an all-time high on a percentage basis going back to the early days of Steam on Linux when it had around a 2% marketshare but at that time the Steam customer size in absolute numbers was much smaller a decade ago than it is now. So if the percentage numbers are accurate, this is likely the largest in absolute terms that the Linux gaming marketshare has ever been.

Data from Valve: https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey/Steam-Hardware-Software-Survey-Welcome-to-Steam?platform=combined

    • Helldiver_M@kbin.social
      11·
      1 year ago

      I don’t think so. Maybe I’m misunderstood, but the “I use Arch” meme was meming on the fact that using Arch was a flex, like it’s harder to get into, and you’re a true blooded Linux user if you’re using Arch.

      Whereas, Pop_OS is kind of the opposite. I’m fairly new to Linux (been using a Linux system as my daily driver for about a year), and Pop_OS was recommended as a beginner-friendly distro. Plus, it worked well with Nvidia cards with minimal effort. So maybe it seems like a lot of people are using Pop_OS and are bringing it up, because there are a lot of newer Linux users.

    • AnonTwo@kbin.social
      10·
      1 year ago

      I think it’s basically the recommendation if you use Nvidia cards, since I think they have the most up to date Nvidia drivers? Could be wrong but that was the spiel last time I tried it.

      • Stillhart@lemm.ee
        1·
        1 year ago

        I am using it specifically because of the hybrid Nvidia graphics on my laptop. Because they sell laptops with this setup, their OS supports it flawlessly. I’ll be honest, I’d rather be using something like Nobara, but there were games that weren’t working and I don’t have the patience to figure out how to get them working. Pop just works. That’s what I need.

        • AnonTwo@kbin.social
          7·
          1 year ago

          The process is less streamlined. There isn’t some universal installer that works on all distributions. Especially not for drivers.

          Basically when you install Pop OS it’s just available. It’s usually…not on a lot of Linux distributions.

    • Ghost@lemmy.ml
      1·
      1 year ago

      I also noticed that. It takes all the pressure off me though because I’m an arch user and have been for 10 years 😂