Linux user share remains above macOS in the latest Steam Survey
Linux user share remains above macOS in the latest Steam Survey
After the rather exciting development in the last Steam Hardware & Software Survey where Linux users overtook macOS for the first time, the latest survey shows Linux continues to be above macOS but with the numbers dipping down.
Despite having so many game offerings over the years, it REALLY feels like Apple has still spent 30+ years shitting on games and gamers. They want games and gamers to conform to THEIR rules instead of them catering to games and gamers.
I have a $4000 Mac with top-of-the-line hardware that requires that I use emulators or virtualization if I want to play games. I have a bunch of legit "macOS-native" games on Steam that I cannot play because they are 32-bit. OpenGL was also scrapped, and with it any chance of several games that could have been updated to 64-bit. Apple will tell you that those are old and depreciated technologies. Well, guess what, it doesn't fucking matter.
Meanwhile Microsoft and Linux developers have spent the same 30 years catering to games and gamers, trying to ensure everything under the sun keeps working, regardless of how old it is.
Pretty much any Win32 app from the past 30 years still works on Windows, and Steam on Linux has made it dead-simple to load many Windows games as easily as if they were Linux games.
I'm glad Linux surpassed macOS. I hope it keeps growing. It will be better for everyone when it catches up to Windows, as well.
It's gonna be funny if people start dual-booting Linux on Mac in the future because they get better game support with the reverse engineered Linux GPU drivers.
They want games and gamers to conform to THEIR rules
But they do it in literally everything. Keyboard layout, window management, graphic api, hardware, peripherals, browser api on ios, and the list goes on. Dont get me wrong, I totally hate apple for this, but if in 2023 you expect something different from them, I think it is on you
Completely agree with you on all of this, but I do think Apple are making moves to change this by working with developers on the Metal API. However that’s only forward facing rather than looking at “legacy” support for games. My problem is their focus on mobile first gaming rather than any of their other hardware.
As much as I like Apple products, I’m please Linux is finding its place in gaming. Something had to start giving Microsoft some competition somewhere.
Developers don’t want to use metal though. Apple needs to support the industry standards rather than pushing forward this pointless api
With specific regard to OpenGL, GL 4.1 is still supported on the latest version of macOS afaik. It was asinine that they deprecated it, but I'm not aware of any reason it would preclude a 64-bit port of a game that previously worked in x86 mode.
@BitingChaos @petsoi this is why valve or some other true Linux laptop need to come in the game. Steam deck proves that Linux can be fun and useful. It’s hard finding a gaming laptop that can be used for all day work like school or whatever.
My copy of Sims Castaway Stories and my multi-disc games like SimCity 4 and Need for Speed Underground 2 beg to differ.
It'd be concerning it any platform managed to be below macOS in a gaming platform's metrics.
Linux was until recently. That's why this is news.
I think it's part of their style. A considerable portion of Apple owners use Apple products for the social look. I have heard many people say they like Apple because it's the fancy luxurious phone/computer which makes the owner/user seem more fancy and cool. The blue bubble is a social indicator to them. Computer games are for nerds. I don't agree with any of that, but I have known people that do.
Eh, I've known plenty of artsy people who use macOS who also play games, but they tend to play more casually. You don't buy a Mac to play games, but that doesn't mean they don't like to play games.
Ditching x86 was the big huge reason I think, that and shitty 3D support.
This means something that has been true since before OS X was invented (circa 1990-ish) that hasn't changed. Wanna game on the puter? Mac ain't it. Mac never been it. Apple actually provides hardware that is gaming able. They don't want to cater to gamers. They could do this easily and sell so many heavy duty desktop towers now. Why won't they? They'd have to UN-propriatary themselves.
This means something that has been true since before OS X was invented (circa 1990-ish) that hasn’t changed.
No, it doesn't. Linux was always behind OSX on this survey. It only changed very recently, and because these survey results fluctuate from month to month, it wasn't clear that it would remain this way.
https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/08/linux-overtakes-macos-users-on-steam-thanks-to-steam-deck/
https://steamdeckhq.com/news/linux-overtakes-macos-in-steam-hardware-survey/
https://hothardware.com/news/linux-beats-mac-steam-survey-radeon-rx-7900-xtx-cameo
wow. that's what i'd call weird computer science. like, we could take that 80's song and get all blinded by computer science. thanks for that. I always thought linux would be ahead. about time the evil was overcome. it's been a huge war. we users of linux have had to suffer. we might not have had to bleed to death, but we didn't spend a premium on a mac and just let everything work, except our games.
Indian population numbers remain higher in India as opposed to Americans.