Steam data reveals PC gamers shifting from Windows to Linux
Steam data reveals PC gamers shifting from Windows to Linux
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Steam data reveals PC gamers shifting from Windows to Linux
218 comments
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This is me. Always Windows for my gaming computer and when I built a new one recently, I went full Linux. No regrets so far.
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Which distro did you go with? I'm looking at switching soon too
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Bazzite.
I found it really easy to get started with. Although I’d recommend KDE over Gnome. I tried Gnome for a few hours before changing my mind and it was just a little too different from what I was used to.
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Look at the desktop environment first. KDE is like Windows. GNOME is like MacOS.
Then look at some videos about how to get your GPU working on a distro you're interested in if you have an Nvidia card. AMD GPU works out of the box.
I would recommend OpenSUSE Tumbleweed. Excellent implementation of KDE, GUI tools to do advanced things, rolling release (i.e. constantly up to date) but also thoroughly tested. Rolls back easily if something gets messed up. This gave me the least problems starting and I stuck with it for over a year. It was great.
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I recently switched and have distro hopped a bit, landing on CachyOS which I feel I’ll stick with for a while (though I’m very indecisive and a small part of me wants to change over to Arch). CachyOS is based on Arch but with more ease of use stuff on top, especially for gaming (they have a gaming bundle which is just one command and you’re good to go), plus I’ve heard it’s the fastest or one of the fastest out there. Bazzite is also great (Fedora-based), which I used for a bit, but I started to get into using the command line more and found immutability to be annoying. It does mean it’s harder to fuck up though, but I don’t really care if I break my machine (you probably won’t break your machine regardless, that’s mostly sarcastic). Pop_OS! (Ubuntu-based) is also supposed to be good for gaming but I haven’t tried it. Keep in mind, if you plan on doing more than gaming and decide to use the command line for downloading, most download guides out there assume you’re using something based on Ubuntu or Debian (you’ll see a lot of “sudo apt install _____”), for better or worse. If you scroll down a bit you’ll probably find stuff for Fedora and/or Arch but not always. That doesn’t mean you can’t get the program on those distros, just that you’ll have to either know where to look or download a different way, such as from a digital storefront or manually from the website of the program you’re getting. I’m still a beginner actively trying to get better, but these are all things I would’ve liked to know when I made the switch a little while ago. Another thing to keep in mind is Linux and Nvidia don’t quite get along as well as AMD or Intel. I have an Nvidia card and both CachyOS and Bazzite had no issues, but for whatever reason Mint didn’t like to run steam games, no matter what I did. I made sure to have all the drivers downloaded and looked up a bunch of guides but I never got it running properly. Bazzite just worked straight out of the box, and CachyOS works even better for me after a little tinkering. If you have any questions, I just recently was where you are now so I might have more relevant advice, though I’m certainly no expert. But I’d be happy to help.
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I started work Bazzite but didn't want to be immutable. Then I switched to Garuda. Both have been super easy.
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FWIW I also switched last year and chose Linux Mint. It was smooth and easy.
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I just wanted to drop in and say I use Arch btw.. lol, there multiple things to suit your use cases, Linux has a few gaming flavors.
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Same. Overall it's been a great experience, but it's had a few issues. Nothing making me even consider going back though
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Switched to Linux Mint a couple of weeks ago. Been playing games for 30 years on windows. So far so good. Played The Drifter through Heroic without issue. Great game btw.
Got an 1080ti. I hope I won't run into to many issues.
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the switch to linux felt like getting out of an abusive relationship
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Linux is not a perfect rose-colored relationship but it's a mature one.
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It does, like any good relationship, need some work. I have been using Mint as my main driver for the last couple of months, and even being a beginner friendly Linux it still needed some time to learn and google around. Now that it's set up i haven't run into anything for a long while.
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I still run Windows on a rarely-used old laptop. Every time I use it, it reminds me how much that's true.
- Forcing you to reboot to install updates, sometimes interrupting a download or something just because it knows best
- Ads creeping in all over the place
- More and more "features" you don't want and never asked for
- AI being shoved in your face
- Surveillance everywhere
- Constantly trying to push you to use "Edge" instead of your chosen browser
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It is sad to see Windows get torn apart by Microsoft.
You don't have to like it but most people know how to use it
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No, they don't, never have, and never will.
I would be surprised if 'most people' nowadays even knew what the 'Internet icon' does, since it's not a logo of Facebook/Instagram/TikTok...
Even before phones, people could open a browser and perhaps browse pictures.
The Office Suite is next level, attained by relatively very few.
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Fuck windows, and copilot, and recall, and most especially OneDrive, and start menu ads, and unnecessary upgrades and ... And ... I gotta say I'm so much happier on Ubuntu, took me a little googling on some stuff and proton is still finicky sometimes, but man o man is it nice to have an OS which does what I tell it to.
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Fuck microsoft. Fuck the Idea that everything needs to make a profit. Essential stuff should be publicly owned.
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I want to nationalize seashores. It's unfair rich people privatized entire coastline.
Same with natural resources. WTF are they owned by corpos? Anything mined and drilled should be owned by all citizens
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In Oregon, at least, everything below the high water mark is public land.
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I want to nationalize seashores. It’s unfair rich people privatized entire coastline.
Make them rentable. I want a private piece of seashore for vacation. But nobody should be able to own it for life.
Same with natural resources. WTF are they owned by corpos? Anything mined and drilled should be owned by all citizens
as sad as it is, that failed miserably in the soviet union. The soviets initially had way better computer but because all industry was publicly owned noone competed and noone bought computers which is why they fell behind the US.
There is a sensible middle ground that allows for the pressure-driven innovation of capitalism without its extreme and unfair exploitation. We just have to find it.
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Doesn't really help that the AAA scene has gone straight in the shitter, while the quality games are all coming out of the Indie scene.
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What Valve is doing is making it easier for indie Devs to better support Linux. They don't have the funds for separate Linux builds. But with proton, it's a pleasure to make it work. So... It's great that quality games are coming out of Indie studios and they can be played on linux. Fuck the AAA
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Are we going to make a big deal out of every 0.3% shift in steams stats towards Linux?
Wake me up when we're dealing in whole percentages.... That's when I'll be excited about it, until then this could just be a sampling bias. A rounding error.
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Steam OS handhelds are pretty much the entirety of the growth.
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The market share of Steam Decks has been declining among Steam Linux users for at least over a year. Steam Deck users were 42% of Steam Linux users in April '24, and this year's July it's only 28%.
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Well, I for one installed Linux on my old surface book 2 yesterday, and my steam library works great on Linux. Even got better FPS.
So I became a Linux gamer yesterday and am super happy
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People don't have a choice. Microsoft made W11 incompatible with a lot of hardware and Microsoft said, "lol, buy new hardware"
Giving nary a single fuck about whats best for their users.
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Linux only gamer for 3+ years now. It is a good time for the penguins.
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The July 2025 data shows that Windows' market share on Steam dropped by 0.44% while Linux's market share grew by 0.32%.
While okay this is growth, it's not exactly meteoric. Hopefully the trend picks up steam (cough) as the win10 EOL approaches.
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Well uh... if that is month to month growth...
A year at .32% growth works out to about 4% growth, if that is rate is sustained for a year.
That would be roughly a doubling of linux marketshare in a year.
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Lots think the gamers will switch over as win10 gets to EOL. I don’t think so. Most gaming machines need to be more modern tomsupport modern games, so they will likely stick with windows and move to win11. I think Linux has a chance to convert many with older PCs, but they won’t be the gamers.
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Hell I switched to Linux specifically because I refused to get W11. I do have to agree with you though, the average gamer probably won't switch to Linux unfortunately.
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I'm personally strongly considering switching when support for Windows 10 ends. I actually started testing the waters by installing Mint on an old netbook today. I game on PC, but the truth of why I'm considering changing is because I'm just sick of the crap with windows. Every new edition is just bigger, slower, filled with more bullshit. I'm just getting tired of disabling all the shit they want to force on me. I'm sure I'm not the only one, but of course this is just my personal experience.
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I’m a gamer, and I ditched windows permanently early this year. shrug
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This is just wrong. All modern hardware will work on an equally modern kernel.
However when it comes to games, some competitive multiplayer games that require kernel level rootkits might not run on Linux if the developers think gaming on Linux is cheating.
I always suggest cross referencing protondb with you game inventory to see if you would have any issues
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I dunno .32% in a single month seems pretty significant. Obviously it's not like Windows is going to go the way of the dodo but it's looking like Linux may be taking a permanent piece of the pie where it had no staying power before.
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Actually, it is meteoric.
Linux's market share didn't grow by 0.32%, it grew by 0.32 percentage points. It actually grew by 12.5% month-over-month. That huge. It went from 2.57% to 2.89%, which is only an increase of 0.32 percentage points. But that's because the starting value is such a small percentage. But, the number itself grew by about 12.5%:
2.57 * 1.125 = 2.89If it could keep up this month-by-month growth it would go from 2.57% to over 10% within 1 year. If it could keep it up for 2 years Linux would be nearly half of all Steam users.
On one hand, I don't think that would happen because the people making the switch now are early adopters and more adventurous users, so at some point it's going to slow down. On the other hand, I think adoption will speed up at some point once there's a critical mass of Linux users and Valve and nVidia start putting even more effort into Linux builds.
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So 2026 year of the Linux?
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Relative, it is. Going front 2% to 2.32% (for example) is pretty good, though I don't know where these numbers come from because the latest I saw had Linux at about 5%, and growing by something like 50-100% per year (for a year). Sure, the total number compared to Windows looks small, but compared to where it was it's growing incredibly quickly.
Edit: Someone said that was monthly, in which case yeah, that's pretty fucking big.
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I liked the comment going "Steam doesn't have data on PC gamers, only Steam gamers.", hinting at the seven gamers that stubbornly refuse to use Steam and still hunt for CDs, or old archives of shareware. They are people too dammit!
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When the internet turns off/gets even more firewalled, the data hoarders will be royalty.
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Came here to 2nd GOG, but there are a few other storefronts with their own game launchers & DRM similar to Steam (Ubisoft, Epic). Humble Bundle provide (sometimes a choice of) GOG/Epic/Steam keys depending on the game, and they also have a collection of DRM-free games you can download directly.
Still, seven CD-ROM game hunters is probably a good estimate..!
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I get 99.999% of my games through GOG.
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At this point it is just easier to play 90% of my Steam library on Linux. Maybe it's different for NVIDIA cards, but with AMD Microsoft is constantly trying to automatically installing old drivers and breaking things. No amount of registry edits seems to stop it. Hell, I had to open the command line just to install Windows with a local account only. Meanwhile, Linux is just click and play now.
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@DelnitaCrane @mesamunefire The ONLY issues I've ever had with gaming on Linux was with x11 WM's and that's ONLY because my stupid Rog Strix is dual AMD/Nvidia and it doesn't play nice with x11. Are there fixes for my issue? no. why? because I'm an idiot that decided to buy a laptop with dual AMD/Nvidia.
On Wayland it works fine.
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If the survey hit for me 1 week from now I'd be on Linux, I'm literally setting my system up properly next Saturday
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You can dual boot Linux to try it out.
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That comes with its own risks because Windows has been known to destroy dual boot setups when doing updates. Not always, but it can happen and it's burnt people.
Dual booting also makes it harder when you decide to get rid of windows fully, because you might yourself accidentally screw your bootloader as part of removing windows.
The option I would personally recommend if you are unsure is to disconnect your windows hard drive, keep it safe, and install Linux on a separate drive. Then you can always drive swap back if you need and you know everything is safe.
You can even put the windows drive back in after installing Linux, and then just use your BIOS boot drive selector to switch where you are booting from. Each drive has it's own boot record in that case, so there's less risk of any accidents.
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My main gaming rig is my last system not running Linux right now, I've been migrating my stuff over on my other systems for a couple months now (I keep getting distracted lol)
But not that I've got alts for the software I normally use on my main rig it's finally time, 2 months ahead of schedule.
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The change is even more dramatic if you consider only those users who use English as their language in Steam. Also, Linux adoption rate has sped up this year. https://www.gamingonlinux.com/steam-tracker/ collects various data about Steam usage. One of the charts (screenshot below) show Linux market share among Linux/English users and overall Linux market share. I added the red line to demonstrate how I see the growth. There's only few data points this side of the year, so my drawing is most likely wrong, but the growth starts around March. The green line is at 4.8% in January and February and 6.31% in July, so a nice 30% increase within about 6 months among Linux/English users.
EDIT: The post is now more in line with reality. Couple more data points:
- Linux market share among all Steam Linux users has gone from 2.06% in January to 2.89% in July. That's a 40% increase within the first seven months only. And as another commenter said, the growth rate might increase towards the end of the year as more people starts abandoning Windows 10.
- The same numbers for last year are 1.95% in Jan '24 and 2.08% in Jul '24, which is only a 6% increase.
- But because the data is a bit jumpy, if I use approximate values of 1.75% for Jan '24 and 2.05 for Dec '24, the Linux market share increased by 17% in the entire last year.
- I'll stop now.
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Considering how people love to delay things until the last minute, I expect it'll sharply rise in October.
I know this because I'm one of those people. Linux on several PCs and servers for years, but I've been too lazy to format & rebuild my gaming PC to get it off win10 and onto Linux.
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You'll switch and then ask yourself why you waited so long.
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I run Linux in English (because translated Unix looks weird) even though I'm not in or from an English speaking country. Sorry for skewing the stats.
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Thou shalt not be forgiveth! /jk
I might have slightly misunderstood what the information is about, but I also worded things in a wrong way. I edited the post to be more in line with reality, and added some more data points.
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Could it be that Steam overcounts the users? I mean if you have a Steam Deck, do you now count as a Linux user, thus diluting the Windows share, even though you’re still (also) using Windows?
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It’s based on devices. But, I wouldn’t consider it as diluting the Windows share. A user might have any combination of devices. Maybe they have PS5 as their home gaming device and Deck as their handheld device. They could also have Windows PC and Nintendo Switch. Or maybe they have Mac laptop and Linux desktop. I for one belong to the Linux desktop and Steam Deck camp. Steam Survey only tells how many Windows, Linux and Mac devices Steam users use, but, for example, not how many hours each type of device is used.
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I think it's important to point out that the percentages are not necessarily that meaningful. If more people are using steam deck and ditch their windows PCs for it, it's not an OS choice. It's a choice to move to consoles. Additionally, steam deck also competes with traditional console brands (PS, Xbox, switch) and might take some market share there as well, so that even if no one ditched their windows PCs, the total number of users using goes up and hence, the percentage.
I haven't had a steam deck in my hands, but I guess that it doesn't need the user to understand the underlying system at all. It can be used by the same unskilled people who use android or iPhone. So, one core requirement I think people need to have to install any other os is not met or even trained, which is actual knowledge about computers.
The reports about "increase in market share of Linux user's" is from my point of view, which is "I think it would be great if people would ditch windows and office" just a market bit. Useful but ultimately little meaningful.
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Mhm, fair point. Although... I would say the steam deck's popularity and proof of viability as a gaming device is doing an immense amount of work on its own. I built a gaming PC ~2 years ago, and even as a long time developer and someone comfortable with a UNIX terminal I opted to get a copy of Windows for gaming, and had to awkwardly get to grips with it and find tools to get it playing the way I wanted.
It's only ~1 month ago that the prevalence and maturity of the steam deck (combined with Windows recall re-emerging🤮) finally had me at ease enough to give Bazzite a shot, and since jumping myself and expressing how happy I am with it, 2 of my long term "on the fence" friends have asked me questions and are starting to try Linux themselves.
Larger Linux market share, regardless of how it gets there, gives broad confidence in Linux, and also pushes developers and Steam itself to maintain Linux support and tools like Proton, which reinforces the cycle, even if it doesn't help us "kill Windows" for as long as users don't understand how to install it.
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Absolutely agree. My point is, that we people should consider these aspects because many comments I saw where a bit one sided as if this loop was already accelerating and 2025 would be the year of Linux.
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Not every Linux user needs to ve comfy with terminal
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That's not what I meant or said. But depending on your setup, the user might need to deactivate bios settings which are named differently or can at least be found in different areas of the bios. So that's a skill they need. Additionally they have to format a hard drive, which requires understanding that not all data is wiped if the data is for example stored in the cloud or a different drive. Additionally, they would have to decide for a distro and desktop, which can easily be overwhelming, as well as a fulesystem during installation... there are lot of skills most users don't have because they are no longer required. And seeing these skill requirements for an unskilled person can be a huge barrier and deal killer.
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Perhaps the steam deck is a gateway drug for desktop linux?
The gaming industry will never recover when valve gets picked clean by the capitalist vultures that continously circle it.
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If more people are using steam deck and ditch their windows PCs for it, it's not an OS choice. It's a choice to move to consoles.
They might have as well moved to Windows handheld or Nintendo Switch. They specifically chose the only Linux handheld on the market.
[Steam Deck] can be used by the same unskilled people who use android or iPhone. So, one core requirement I think people need to have to install any other os is not met or even trained, which is actual knowledge about computers.
Why is this a core requirement with Linux only? There are millions and millions of Windows users who have never installed an OS. Sounds gatekeeping to me.
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I might be misinterpreting your response but you seem offended. Not sure why, as it wasn't my intention.
Firstly, I am not aware of, as in "not well informed about" windows based hand helds. To my understanding, steam is quite dominant in the market, and advertising the steam deck through their platform. Why should someone bother with a windows handheld to install steam on the device, if steam comes with the steam deck? Why should someone with a large library move to another system? No, I think steam deck is the most comfo choice when you play games on steam and want a console or hand-held system without the drawbacks of other systems. I own a switch and deeply regrett buying it in 2019, now that the steam deck would allow me to play the same titles. It'd be a much better choice for me.
I don't understand your comment on gate keeping though. Having easily installed upgrades (win 10->11 for example) makes live easy. Moving to a different os nowadays is a much larger barrier compared to, say, the year 2000, when you had to buy a cd and format your entire system just to realize that drivers are missing and you had to actually figure things out. At the time, moving to a new version was complicated but forced people to educate them selves. Now, it's just a click to upgrade. The barrier is reduced, less gate keeping, great! But also less skilled people.
And it's not meant with disrespect. Live got easier, keeping the system updated got easier, people weren't forced to learn stuff and subseque vendor locked in. Now the skill barrier seems huge for many people and trying another os, even if it was apple, becomes unfathomable.
Again, it's great that Through the steam deck Linux development is pushed forward as fast as it does. My day to day users won't migrate unless they are very tech savvy or the enshitification progresses further and further. My employer just decided to move everything to SharePoint because co pilots helps us all doing our work so much faster... I'd have opted for something different and tried to reduce the vendor lock in... but that step would've been to large apparently.
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They might have as well moved to Windows handheld or Nintendo Switch. They specifically chose the only Linux handheld on the market.
No, they chose a Steam console. A device with the same high convenience and low bar of entry as any other console, but with their (almost) whole Steam library on it.
Why is this a core requirement with Linux only? There are millions and millions of Windows users who have never installed an OS. Sounds gatekeeping to me.
Because conciously choosing and installing Linux is currently the requirement to run Linux on your PC.
If I go to the local electronics store I can pick up a Windows, MacOS or ChromeOS device that has everything pre-installed: OS, drivers, dependencies, all setup for instant usage.
And if I don't even know what an OS is, I'll get a Windows PC recommended by the sales people at said electronics store.
That kind of user experience is usually not available for prospective Linux users.
Unless they buy a Steam Deck, which is pretty much the only native Linux PC that's popular enough that a non-tech person would know it.
(Technically stuff like Tuxedo and Framework exist, but they are pretty unknown.)
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Because most pcs bought don't have Linux preinstalled and usually only have the option of windows?
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I'm currently configuring my new linux dev/gaming machine. Thanks for giving me the push I needed, Microsoft!
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I switched to Linux so I could spend $200 more on actual hardware for my build.
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Not arguing with your choice (props actually, I respect the switch) but it is possible to get a legit grey market key for w11 Pro for a lot less. I think I got mine for $20-30 in early 2024?
Edit: I should have noticed I was in the Linux group before I posted that, I thought I was still in the gaming one I guess! Not advocating windows to anyone, it's a terrible OS. But some people might need it for some things so I figured I'd share information that might help someone save a bit of money if they did. (Yes, there are other ways around that.)
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Yeah but Microsoft is making money off your data.
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And then you have to continously fight it because it switches your default browser to edge or starts showing you ads out of the blue or record your screen every second or whatever the fuck those greedy bastards think of doing next...
Noooo fucking thanks, I switched to Pop for a year now and I'm not going back ever.
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I'd rather buy a high end noctua fan for my CPU then spend $30 on a windows license. Although I have bought those in the past.
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You can get it for tree from them directly. They don't care about that upfront cost. They make money off your data.
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I've never needed to activate windows on any of my computers since I just prefer Linux. But the gray market seems scary to me with the possibility of the key coming from a stolen card victim's wallet.
Is there any reason a non-dirty key would be available on the market? Does Microsoft do promotions or deals like that?
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It's good to see people making a switch to Linux. But the real tell will be in finding out how many of those people actually stick long term.
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Glad to have made the jump! not even dual booting
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Windows still is way farther ahead
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Not really. Proton has done wonders for Linux gaming. The only games that really don't run have drm configured to block Linux specifically.
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Windows has a 95% market share on Steam
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I think OP is referring to the percentage, not functionality. Windows, especially the office suites / GUIs are micht more refined. Someone somewhere pointed out at some point in time that backend development is often open source because developers are dedicated to the cause and the function. Designers, on the other hand, not so much (maybe they need payment because their main job pays less... I don't know.
In the end, the user uses the front-end, not the backend. And unless money flows into front-end development, for example, by a growing market of companies who want to switch away from office 365 for functional and financial reasons, we won't see front-ends which are attractive enough for people to switch to Linux for daily/ work related tasks.
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I have over 300 games installed and fully functional at least one from every year from 1989 to 2025. They all work. Some work better on Arch some (older 32 bit games from original CD) run better on Mint or wont install on Arch. Newer ones like Doom Dark Ages simply run better on Arch. Good luck installing DCS on Wayland though. Just dual boot an X11 focused distro and a Wayland focused one for best of both worlds. Windows hijacked my 25+ year old Hotmail account with their OneDrive ransomware and took my Linux EFI boot partition with it when it was promptly uninstalled. Every single game that is exclusive to Windows is a virus just like the OS that they run on. All cartooned out and loaded with microtransactions and invasive anti cheats. Ew. I would rather compute on a Texas Instruments calculator than install the Windows virus ever again. Id rather draw numbers in the sand than use one of their nasty products or play one of their ugly mass marketed games for dummies. Just absolutely wretched. X670E Creator Wifi, 7950x, 4080 Super, 64GB RAM, 1200W PSU, 4tb Samsung 9100 Pro gen5 nvme, 2x 2tb 990 Pro game drives, Arch and Mint share game drives and run the same files through Steam, Lutris, etc.
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I'm really not far off. Once my Tiny11 install breaks, it's on to Bazzite.
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Let us know how it goes! Never tried Bazzite!
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I installed it on my SteamDeck and have its non-gaming sister on my laptop and I love it.
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I wouldn’t trust a premade iso like that. Get an iso directly from Microsoft and use an unattended autoinstall script to clean things up.
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I respect that, but I built my own Tiny11 iso. You can do so as well here: https://github.com/ntdevlabs/tiny11builder
Folks gotta give me a little benefit of the doubt. I'm not raw-doggin' the modern Windows experience here.
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Personally running Nobara with my 4080, works great.
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author has never used desktop linux and doesn't really grasp what it is 😜
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For someone out of the loop, could you explain what it is? What is wrong with desktop linux?
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Nothing
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Honestly? The problem is the people who use desktop Linux. The environments are fine. It's the people. Can confirm. I use Arch, btw.
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Where?! I filled the hardware survey and as they asked what OS I was on was hoping to see a stat about OSes, but no.
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Spoiler: we are talking about 0.32% rise in Linux gamers.
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Been on gaming kn Linux for a while now. Overall with Steam and Proton I rarely have any issues.
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I am moving over once win10 support ends and it starts to cause friction for me.
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The deadline is 2 months away
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The year of the Linux desktop, babeyyyyyy!!!
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The vibe I've been getting lately looking at Steam's push for Steam OS compatibility is that it might actually be worth trying a dual boot again next time I can bestir myself to mess with it. I've got W11 but managed to disable auto updates so I haven't received all the AI crap, but also means my OS is increasingly behind on security updates, which I'm not pleased about.
I don't care about the latest and greatest either, generally, so maybe even more worth it...although most of my new game purchases are indie titles and most of those only release for windows. So we'll see. I already have a strong preference for Mac support so I can play stuff on my laptop too.
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Using valves proton means most windows games will run flawlessly (usually better) on Linux, so it's really a non issue if the games you want to play are "windows only" (unless they use some kernel level anti-cheat).
Also worth mentioning that if you did want the latest and greatest, that would be more of an incentive to switch to Linux.
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Good to know!
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Generally speaking, as long as the game doesn't have kernel-level anticheat, it'll work on Linux. Basically, you miss out on some competitive multiplayer games, but not all. Everything else works fine, you might have to check protondb.com for some specific fixes, but usually Steam handles all that stuff in the background. For GOG/Epic/itch.io etc. Heroic Games Launcher is your best option, though sometimes I have to use Bottles for certain games. Some people like Lutris, I haven't had any luck with it. But, for the most part, games "just work" on Linux now.
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That's great news. A lot better than last time I tried to make it work.
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Does anyone know how core parking/scheduling is in Linux for 9950X3D cpus? AMD finally got it working near flawlessly in Windows, kinda don't wanna give that up.
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The equivalent cppc driver is on Linux, along with a sysfs interface that lets you override cache (CCD) preference per-application, like you can via Registry on Windows.
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Can't speak to that exact CPU - but Linux tends to have excellent support for AMD. It's why Linux users strongly recommend using an AMD graphics cards. I'd be surprised if windows offered a better experience
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Got Linux on my laptop, literally just waiting a year to put it on my desktop (Linux does NOT like brand new hardware)
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i have an i9 and a 5090 on linux
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That might be true for distros like mint, but fedora is usually fine with brand new hardware.
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My hardware's new enough that my WiFi card doesn't work on Windows 10 (and won't, only Win11), but it works on recent-ish Linux kernels. Not contradicting you, but it was interesting to see.
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Just my two cents. I personally own a lot of different gaming devices running different platforms. I don't have an allegiance to one particular platform because::I just think they're neat::.
I don't think I'm unique in this case either. In reality it's always been "use the right tool for the right job" kinda scenarios.
With that being said, open source platforms have broken into the scene in a big way recently. I built a bd790i/radeon7800xt system a little while back and it has become my primary gaming platform. It runs Bazzite and it's always just ready to go with most (if not all) of my steam games running.
I basically use windows on machines running Nvidia hardware. Even on my workstation where Nvidia has basically decided their chosen platform is WSL2 and chosen not to embrace the larger Linux ecosystem completely (yet).
I do have a test box that constantly runs bazzite-dx where I am testing Nvidia compatibility. It's getting REALLY GOOD. however I just had a set back where Bambu studio flatpaks do not render 3d objects anymore. Flatpaks integration with Nvidia is a major pain sometimes as it can break with driver updates. I'm really new to this but fltapak needs the driver as well as the base system and then the flatpacked application needs to support it as well? It seems cumbersome. I don't have this problem with AMD GPUs.
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AMD is better than NVidia, just because AMD did not spend years screwing the Linux community out of drivers. I do not need that additional bajillisecond of speed that I do not notice anyways just to use NVidia's bullshit. Seeing Linus Torvalds flip off NVidia with a very public "fuck you" is one of the most satisfying things I have ever seen. NVidia can eat a dick!
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just because AMD did not spend years screwing the Linux community out of drivers.
They did, actually. It's just that they did that a long time ago. I vividly remember a time when I avoided AMD hardware because, while Nvidia's drivers were closed source, at least they worked. AMD's drivers, when they worked at all, gave severely degraded performance compared to what that same hardware was capable of in Windows.
Fortunately, those days seem to be behind us now.
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Right and I agree. All my recent hardware purchases in the last 3 years have all been AMD.
I have SOME Nvidia hardware right now and I'm sure other people do too. Unfortunately, AMD is lagging behind in some key scenarios that will hopefully be resolved in the near future. AMD knows this and doesn't compete in the high end currently (outside of Datacenter).
I do like to think that AMDs apus are the future and the death of the discrete GPU is imminent. I have been looking at things like the 395 AI MAX (poorly named CPU) for some testing but right now it doesn't make sense to hop platforms financially.
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Does that exclude steam deck users?
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Good question. It's an actual survey (not analytics data) which asks specifically about PCs, not handhelds. https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey
Survey data isn't always the best data. Linux users might be more likely to take the survey in the first place, for example, while Windows users might not care to.
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It's all Linux users, Deck included. But Steam Deck's market share among Linux users has declined from 42% in April '24 to 28% in July '25, and it looks like it has declined slightly faster this year.
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/steam-tracker/
"SteamOS Holo" is the name of the Linux distro used in Steam Deck.
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Feels like the perfect time
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I will be, too, sometime next year. instead of just doing the regular reset of windows, which as I recently learned is now an absolute pain in the ass instead of something quick and easy, I'm going to be switching over to Linux
I'm sure I'll still keep a windows PC around, but I'm pretty fed up with Microsoft just being so goddamn shitty at designing an OS for user experience
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Why not now? Do you use the computer for school or work?
Linux is very easy to try, without even installing it. You can load Linux Mint on a USB thumb drive, then the hardest part is setting your BIOS to boot from it.
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Most Linux people play games, but that was not why they started using Linux. When people who only want to game start using Linux, it will become like any other OS, where protecting the uninformed users from themselves and others will have take more priority, thus limiting choices and freedom.
Gamers will not make Linux better, Linux has been nice since most people using it has an interest in Linux or open source or programming or other values that align with the community. Meaning there is a good balance between pure users, and users who also contribute in some way ( active on forums, code, etc ).
Gamer values generally does not align or even intersect with Linux communities, and the scammers/exploiters/malwares that feed on gamers will follow them. So we get more pure users, and also pure malicious contributions (viruses, misinformation, scams masquerading as game tips etc)
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Gamers will not make Linux better
Gamers as a customer base is literally what‘s driving GPU driver developments. Valve and their contractors are among the main driving forces in development of the FOSS Linux stack.
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It's insane what people will gatekeep about
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Most Linux people play games, but that was not why they started using Linux.
My first direct exposure to Linux was when I got a Steam Deck. Not long after, I formatted my laptop and installed EndeavourOS, specifically because my gaming experience on the Deck was so good.
Gamers have already made Linux better with the development of Proton.
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Yep, and it uses literally less than half of the resouces to sit and do nothing as Windows does.
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I too have thought about the malicious side of things. It will be an issue as the marketshare for malware grows with the Linux base. The difference is, we have an open source community and people who can see the issues in the source code. If we all stay with open source and call out the trickery, the noobs will rally along with us. Also, if one distro becomes unsafe, we can move to another.
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I have not had much trouble gaming on Arch Linix with Hyprland. That is a fairly tough combo in the Linix world and I still have not run into as much trouble. Honestly, the gaming is not worth it. Between console and Linux I can do whatever I want. My last windows machine is going to be replaced as soon as I have time to do it.
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Would be mostly steamdeck
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The survey in question is in regards to personal computers, so it depends on how the question was asked, and how people answered it. If people consider their Steam Deck to be a personal computer that runs Linux, I suppose they could answer that way. But, I don't think that's very likely.
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bruh i'm using cracked Ltsc w10, so less bloatware and i dont want to use this shit or w11 anymore.
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switched to arch 7 or so months ago because of the recall spyware breaking the camels back. havent looked back since, i shouldve switched sooner i actually like using my computer now!
Roughly the same for me. I couldn't use Windows 11 on my old one and certainly wasn't going to put it in my new one. Gaming has been a breeze too, much easier than I was led to believe.