It's that time again where we look to Steam's monthly survey and all feel slightly better about our own rigs. Just for starters, I may not be able to afford the latest Nvidia card, but I can still feel a wee bit smug that neither you nor I fall into the 37% of Steam users still rocking Windows 10, right? …Right?
Operating systems that are about to become an unsupported vintage aside, the real story from the May edition of Steam's hardware and software survey is that there's been a slight uptick in folks moving to Linux—by about 0.42%.
Okay, so it's hardly like there's been a massive exodus from Windows as the end of 10 approaches, but the fact that 2.69% of Steam users are running a Linux OS is worth drilling down into.
For one thing, SteamOS itself is Linux-based. For another, SteamOS is gradually rolling out compatibility for handhelds beyond the Steam Deck, such as the Lenovo Go S and other AMD devices, potentially explaining some of this increase.
Steam has even added a compatibility rating for third-party devices to its store pages, at least suggesting a long-term commitment to bringing SteamOS to a wide selection of devices.
On the hardware team, our Jacob recently got SteamOS running on his Legion Go S and hasn't looked back. However, as he notes in his feature, we've enjoyed less success getting SteamOS to run on other devices with similar internals, like the Framework 13 Strix Point laptop.
While still doable, it hasn't been all that functional in Dave's recent experience. Dave has, however, managed to get a SteamOS laptop up and running using the Framework's older 7840U mainboard.
Though 2.69% is a bit of a high as far as OS share goes, I'm not going to pretend this is Linux's tipping point. Besides the fact that Windows still enjoys a whopping 95.45% total share of the OS pie in Steam's May survey, Valve's ultimate ambitions for SteamOS aren't really about replacing Windows.
Still, if you've got a third-party handheld gaming PC, you can try your own hand at installing SteamOS using Steam's own handy guide. Alternatively, you could attempt to install Windows on your Steam Deck, though our Dave would likely judge you for it.
It's worth noting that the Steam survey is a little, let's just say, all over the place. It's a good tool for a general idea of trends, but view the results with a pinch of salt. For example, I doubt there's been a sudden wave of new, dual-core CPUs coming online in the past month, but lo and behold, Steam registers a 0.12% uptick.
Linux usage around the 2% mark does at least appear to be a fairly reliable stat month-to-month: Linux usage was at 2.27% in April, slightly down on the 2.33% noted in March, but broadly above the 1.55% of users registered in February.
