Windows 10 is the OS of choice for nearly a third of Steam gamers

[waxtats]

"choice" is a strong word. Let's just say it's the OS of necessity. Choice implies that people would actually choose Windows even if all of their games ran on another OS.

[waxtats]

Why would you expect a new technology to work seamlessly with an OS 3 major versions old?

Because you have to pay for it. No... Win 10 is not free. It's free if you already paid.

[Sumanji]

I am more surprised that there are still people using Vista

Vista would instantly drive me into the cold, loveless embrace of 10

OOI, what category do SteamOS users fall into? There are four flavours of Linux listed on the SHS:

Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS 64 bit 0.24% +0.02%
Ubuntu 15.04 64 bit 0.18% 0.00%
Linux Mint 17.2 Rafaela 64 bit 0.11% +0.01%
Linux 64 bit 0.09% +0.01%

[DanceswithUnix]

Vista would instantly drive me into the cold, loveless embrace of 10

OOI, what category do SteamOS users fall into? There are four flavours of Linux listed on the SHS:

Ubuntu 14.04.3 LTS 64 bit 0.24% +0.02%
Ubuntu 15.04 64 bit 0.18% 0.00%
Linux Mint 17.2 Rafaela 64 bit 0.11% +0.01%
Linux 64 bit 0.09% +0.01%

SteamOS is a Debian variant, so I am guessing either "Linux 64 bit" or they are filtering those users out so people can't see the early adoption figures.

[Numenor]

I'm still on Vista on my main PC, which is a good few years old (I bought an OEM copy at the time), and I'm not paying to upgrade it. I'm not planning to upgrade my win 8.1 laptop to W10 either.

But when I get a Surface Pro 4, of course I will have no choice in the matter.

[scaryjim]

That's what, nearly 4/5ths?

nearer 7/8th by my reckoning

SteamOS is a Debian variant, so I am guessing either "Linux 64 bit" or they are filtering those users out so people can't see the early adoption figures.

Oooh, cheeky if they are.

0.09% would still be tens of thousands though, so not terrible for a beta OS with no pre-installed user base....

[DanceswithUnix]

Oooh, cheeky if they are.

0.09% would still be tens of thousands though, so not terrible for a beta OS with no pre-installed user base....

There is a theory that the Steam survey only happens when you first log on, and Linux boxes are more likely to be just left up than a Windows box, so the Linux numbers might be under reported.

[Firejack]

Not had the Steam Hardware survey pop up on my made-from-spare-parts Steam Machine yet. Only used it half a dozen times while I wait for my Steam Controller. Of course at this point I've no idea if the stats are reported automatically or not.

Strange thing the Steam Hardware survey though. I've never seen it popup while using the Ubuntu installation on my gaming machine. But its popped up on my Laptop that I only used for chat and the occasional Home Stream. To get a complete picture of who is running what Hardware + Software I would expect it to run periodically on every machine with Steam installed instead of random like it appears now.

[shaithis]

There is a theory that the Steam survey only happens when you first log on, and Linux boxes are more likely to be just left up than a Windows box, so the Linux numbers might be under reported.

Can't see why linux would be up "longer" and certainly to the point where the amount of logins to steam would be substantially less. We are talking about gaming machines,, not servers.

[DanceswithUnix]

Can't see why linux would be up "longer" and certainly to the point where the amount of logins to steam would be substantially less. We are talking about gaming machines,, not servers.

It isn't down to platform stability, just usage patterns of different user bases. Linux users have a different mindset to Windows users where in Linux for decades reboots are considered harmful rather than something that fixes problems. Also, we aren't talking about gaming machines, these will likely be home development workstations that are capable of gaming (like my own home PC). That is why I have ECC ram, and don't ever overclock, but I do have Steam installed under Linux (but have only ever seen a survey request under Windows, sample of one but odd).

I suspect there will be another non technical selection bias when it comes to the option of whether to click "send" if you do get the option. I have no idea whether Windows or Linux users will be more or less likely to give up their hardware info to the cloud, but I am pretty sure the ratio of send/don't send will be different.

I think the Steam survey is very interesting, but surveys often suffer from selection bias and I think this is no different. Still interesting to read though.

[Sumanji]

Hmm, I never get the survey popup anymore... I just assumed Valve amended the ToS such that they just gather data in the background now...

[PorcupineTime]

I am more surprised that there are still people using Vista

I'm sort of surprised how much they are outnumbered by people using XP.

Unrelatedly, is that a picture of a Silverstone RVZ01b case? Has someone used that to make a prebuilt steam machine?

[k-c]

i have people i know still on XP mate!!!

Definitely not one of the 2.24% here

To be fair, I will finally be building my new Windows 10 system very soon so I'll be joining the 'nearly a third'!