Ceci est une ancienne révision du document !
First of all, I’d like to begin by wishing Full Circle Magazine a happy 10th anniversary! Also a big thank you goes out to our fearless editor Ronnie Tucker who somehow manages to keep all contributors (including me) somewhat organized to bring you the best Ubuntu magazine every month. I began using Linux with the release of Ubuntu 10.04 which seems like just yesterday – even though it’s been almost seven years. When I first began using Ubuntu, the default desktop environment was Gnome. Then, soon thereafter, Ubuntu introduced Unity which was not well received. I didn’t really like Unity at first but it has since grown on me. With the recent news of Unity being dropped by Ubuntu, I was reminded that nothing lasts forever, especially experiments such as Unity and maybe also Linux gaming.
Back in 2010, the state of Linux gaming was pretty stagnant, empty, deserted, but little did I know that it was all about to change. My first full video game review was of a game titled Limbo – which is a black & white platformer with a few twists that make it very entertaining. I obtained that game as part of the Humble Indie Bundle V before Steam decided to bring some of its library to Linux. The Linux gaming landscape was on the cusp of its greatest expansion. I’ve witnessed the wave of top quality games being brought over to Linux and have been writing reviews of this current Linux gaming revolution over the last couple of years. As fortunate as we’ve been in recent years in regards to Linux gaming, and as much as the Linux gaming landscape has grown, there are always threats, menaces and obstacles around every corner. The biggest hurdle we’ve faced is the fear from game developers and distributors that there aren’t enough Linux gamers willing to spend money on their product. It’s a very real fear especially given the fact that the methods used to gauge the number of Linux gamers are very flawed.
One of the better known surveys used to determine potential sales figures for games is the monthly Steam Hardware Survey. Every month, Valve (the company behind the Steam game engine) puts out its results gathered from the Steam Hardware Survey. This survey gathers information regarding what kind of hardware you’re using, such as CPU, RAM, GPU, monitor, internet connection, and other hardware components. However, software information is also gathered through the survey, such as whether you’re using 32-bit vs. 64-bit, and it lists what operating system you’re using. The latest March 2017 survey (http://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey?platform=combined) lists Linux use at 0.77% which is up 0.02% from the previous month. There is even a further breakdown that shows Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS 64-bit as the leading Linux distribution at 0.22% and further down is Linux Mint 18.1 64-bit at 0.07%.*
This survey is supposed to be gathered from random users and should technically be triggered when you run Steam at random once per month at most. However, it has been well documented that there is a huge flaw (perhaps a bug) in the way that Linux gamers receive the survey. Over the last year I’ve only had the Steam Hardware Survey show up in my computer once while using Ubuntu. Between two desktops and one laptop, I use Linux about 70% of the time. The remaining 30% of the time I use Windows 10, and, sometimes, although very rarely, I actually play games on Windows. Oddly enough, over the last year, the Steam Hardware Survey has shown up almost every month that I’ve used Windows. I hadn’t played games on Windows since summer 2016 until March of this year. On March, the Steam Hardware Survey popped up on me the one and only time I used Windows. Then two weeks ago in April, the Steam Hardware Survey showed up again the one time I turned on Steam while on Windows. In 2017, the survey still hasn’t shown up on Linux even though I’ve spent about 95% of my time on Steam while using Ubuntu. I can testify based on personal experience that the frequency of the Steam Hardware Survey appearing on Windows vs. Linux is extremely off balance. How is it possible that out of 100+ hours of Linux use the survey has appeared only once, yet out of 12 hours of Windows use, it’s shown up about 4 times over the last year?
By the way, this is not an opinion article but rather a factual account as evidenced by reports from other users in places such as reddit (https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/3cey4c/do_you_get_any_steam_hardware_surveys) among others. This is a real problem that very clearly undermines and under-represents Linux gamers and should be taken seriously, especially given the fact that an actual bug has been filed in Valve’s own GitHub page (https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/2286). There have also been more than a couple of articles criticizing flaws in how Steam conducts its survey in publications/websites such as GamingOnLinux (https://www.gamingonlinux.com/articles/linux-usage-on-steam-is-better-than-people-think.6756), PC World (http://www.pcworld.com/article/3045249/linux/linux-gaming-is-much-healthier-than-steams-hardware-survey-implies.html) and more. So this is obviously a problem in that although it seems like Linux users account for less than 1% of all gamers on Steam, the real figure is almost certainly higher. Until the Steam Hardware Survey bug is addressed, the figure isn’t likely to go up, and, until then, Linux gaming won’t be able to flourish as much as Android gaming has (for example). Android, by the way, is based on Linux, which makes one wonder why Android has been successful in gaming yet Linux desktop hasn’t. The answer comes down to sales figures.
So, what can be done about it? The first and most obvious tool at our disposal is to buy games while running Linux. Nothing speaks more to developers and distributors than sales figures. Every time we buy a game, whether through Steam, Humble Bundle, GOG (https://www.gog.com/), etc, while using Linux, we’re sending a clear message. There are other actions we can take such as deciding whether or not to participate in the Steam Hardware Survey. Let me explain: If chosen to participate in this survey, your participation is optional. Thus, if you’re using Linux while the survey appears, please participate in it. All information is automatically gathered with the exception of one or two questions at most. Your participation won’t take more than half a minute. If, on the other hand, you’re using Windows when the survey appears before you, then decline to participate in it. The more often we participate in the Linux survey as opposed to the Windows survey, the better it will be for us Linux gamers in the long run. Another thing we can do is to let Valve know that we’re not being included in their survey. A good place to let them know is the GitHub bug I previously mentioned. Just add your name and a comment to that bug. The more of us who do it, the more likely it is that Valve will take this seriously. So, even though we are saying goodbye to the Unity desktop, there is still a chance we won’t have to say goodbye to Linux games.