It’s actually second now.
Linux now has more steam users than MacOS
Which, as an ex MacOS user, is a mindboggling fact it took this long.
I guess people just trying to do things with what they have. I had a friend who plays LoL on a Mac. She also used Steam on it but there were very few games.
I was in that camp as well. Personally, if gaming got better on Mac I’d go back in a heartbeat. If you have a specific title you like that’s support it’s really nice, but anything else is a layer of compromises to get things up and running :/
Aren’t modern Macs literally not able to run games due to them being arm?
ARM isn’t the problem. Some games have native ARM ports, and x86 games can be run by Rosetta. It’s not as fast as native, but broadly comparable with the performance of the previous gen Intel chips they replaced.
A bigger problem on macOS is that they dropped support for 32-bit software a few years ago in Catalina. Not a problem with newer games, but it decimated Mac users’ Steam libraries.
And the biggest problem is that Apple just doesn’t give a shit about gaming. Every few years, they claim they’re going to do games, but quickly forget about it. They’ve never put decent video cards in Macs, and never hesitate to throttle hardware if proper cooling would mean a larger enclosure, so AAA games typically arrive on macOS years late, when second-rate or integrated video cards can run them.
If they actually cared, they’d have their own Vulcan implementation. Instead, they’re focused on their own proprietary Metal API.
Basically, Apple and AAA game studios have been ignoring each other for decades.
so AAA typically arrive late
that’s IF they arrive at all. Many studios/publishers just don’t care about lower hardware anymore. If it doesn’t run on current day hardware they don’t release it for it. Especially with Linux and Mac. The best time to get a release for the the two would be release day, after that it’s diminishing results
I firmly believe that with the move to ARM, they gutted macos gaming capability past the point of no return. You used to be able to say that you could run compatibility layers on it but, the new architecture makes it super hard to do so. Even virtualizing it via VirtualBox is a pain in the butt on the new system. I’ve just been telling customers if you want any type of gaming support, choose anything but the new macs.
It depends, actually. You can stack translation layers to take things from x_86 -> Arm and stuff intended for Windows -> MacOS. Depending on your solution sometimes you need to use Microsoft’s x86 translation layer and some times you use Apple’s.
This takes a pretty big hit tho. And for a long time DX12 was an issue, but with Apple’s release of the GameDev porting kit (intended for developers) you could now do play those titlss through a WineBottle. Many users did this (myself included) and I think commercial products like CrossOver are able to have the same functionality. Playing D4 on my base m1 was kinda wild.
It’s honestly kinda fun if you like tinkering, but not ideal if you care about raw performance. Ultimately tho, my Linux system is just easier now, but if I get curious if I can run a game on the thinnest laptop I own I reach for my Mac.
What do you think mobile games run on?
You won’t find any of those on Steam…
https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/gettingstarted/mobile https://topgameslists.com/mobile-games-on-steam/ https://www.androidpolice.com/android-games-on-pc/
I could keep doing this. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of games on Steam that started on mobile.
Not that this matters because the entire fucking point is that NO, Macs aren’t “unable to run games because ARM” when almost all mobile games run on ARM and they get ported to non-ARM processors ALL THE FUCKING TIME.
Are Linux users just unable to think beyond what’s literally in front of them?
True though point being here Steam is a PC platform so it doesn’t have ARM games, it has ports of them. So yes, unless you use some kind of emulator, ARM Macs won’t run Steam games let alone Steam.
…are… you… fucking trolling?
Do you not know what a port is? Are you not aware that numerous modern game engines don’t even need to be ported, they just run on multiple platforms?
Macs being ARM based has FUCKING NOTHING TO DO with there being few games for the platform.
Apple has never courted game developers. They have never been about absolute gaming power. They’re about developers, media production, and general use audiences. They do not build gaming computers. Any gaming capability is ancillary to their actual business model.
If a developer doesn’t see a potential ROI on porting a game to Apple silicon, they won’t. It’s that simple.
Math don’t add up, Linux would be second because whatever else would only have 1.83.
Second place baby!
But second place wasn’t looking so saucy like the medal biting guy
Also works for Reddit vs lemmy user count
I like to think we are in fact happier here than on Reddit.
Even if it was all gamers, that’d push a lot of companies to care about Linux a whole lot more. Venn diagram of people who spend a lot of money in tech stuff and people who play games is almost a circle nowadays.
I don’t even think Valve really care about Linux. At least not in the same way that Linux users care about Linux.
They just care about getting the costs of Steam Deck down, and don’t want MS to go mental and pull the rug from under their business model.
I’m surprised by how much of my Steam library would work on the Deck, tbh. Out of nearly 1300 games, 407 are verified, and 931 are verified and playable. Be nice if you could stream the rest (either from your own PC or an external provider), but Geforce Now showed that was a minefield (I suspect due to exclusive streaming rights already being to sold to someone else) and publishers freaked the fuck out, despite it being none of their business where I run my purchased games.
They care about Microsoft not 100% controlling access to the platform Steam customers use. Valve cares about Linux because they need an escape strategy if Microsoft ever locks them out.
I thought they were going that way with Windows 11 S that prevented you using anything other than the MS Store, but it turns out you can just switch S mode off.
It would be mental for MS to do it. Their desktop dominance hinges entirely on people still being able to run the last 30 years or so of wonky old software.
S mode is in 10 also. I work for a MSP that recommends virtual desktops to our clients, so we often have to help users connect from their home PCs. It wasn’t a ton, but enough people were locked in S-mode we all had practice walking them through disabling It, because it blocks our remote control app also if in s made.
I’ve only found 2 games out of my library so far that don’t work
You can stream from your own PC. They have remote play and Steam Link for android.
Valve has been pro linux and anti-windows way before steam deck… did people forget about the Steam machines?
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Is that before or after Steam Deck users? Would it be higher than 1.96 if we included steam deck in the count?
After steam deck.
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I think it does matter, from what I’ve gathered including the steam deck would likely up the percentage significantly due to being essentially a Linux only machine.
People are installing Windows 11 en-masse on that Steam Deck!
No they aren’t
Okay, people are uploading videos of their successful Windows 11 install on YouTube, Reddit and the Steam community en-masse, followed by complaining it doesn’t run well lmao
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Truly a Linux moment
So uncanny that in the Ubuntu bug tracker, bug #1 is Microsoft & bug#2 simply does not exist.
Wait, If Windows is 96.21% and Linux is 1.96%, then MacOS is 1.83%?
Wouldn’t that make Linux 2nd place?
Before opening the comments, I spent several seconds contemplating if I should mention this, or if people would think I was some pedantic nerd dickhead and downvote me to hell. Glad someone else already covered this.
We still think you’re a pedantic need dickhead, but we upvote you for that!
I like this meme format
I wish I had his energy tbh
As much as #3?
linux all the way!
Who does Number 2 work for?
Doin my linux gaming thing since 2013
Even if it’s Steam Deck, this just goes to show that desktop Linux is totally viable; it just needs more commitment from companies
Maybe this is the year for desktop Linux!
Windows 10 has support into next year. Personally I use Linux and Windows but I’m sticking with gaming on Windows until support runs out. I think next year will be the year of linux
Does SteamOS count as Linux? How about Android?
Yes, SteamOS does count as Linux. Android does not. The Android and iOS Steam app is just for social features / store, not for playing games so neither show up on the survey.
SteamOS Holo, which is what the Steam Deck uses, makes up 42% of the Linux systems in the survey results.
Wow 42% is actually a lot less than I had imagined
Which OS is #2 then? MacOS is now behind Linux.
Windows 11 is #2
😬
