Steam on Linux use has hit an all-time high! With the Steam Survey results for October 2025 coming out this evening, Steam on Linux has finally cracked the 3% threshold! A few months back Steam on Linux was close to 3% before stumbling a bit but now it’s above that elusive threshold. The only time Steam on Linux use was close to the 3% mark was when Steam on Linux initially debuted a decade ago and at that time the overall Steam user-base was much smaller than it is today. Long story short, thanks to the ongoing success of Valve’s Steam Deck and other handhelds plus Steam Play (Proton) working out so well, these October numbers are the best yet.
Long story short, thanks to the ongoing success of Valve’s Steam Deck and other handhelds plus Steam Play (Proton) working out so well
… plus people get more and more fed up with Windows.
People can get fed up all they want, if there’s no alternative (wine/proton) then there’s not a whole lot most people can do besides suck it up
And? The opposite is also true: If people are happy with Windows, then it does not matter how good the alternative is.
While true, there is an alternative. Your comment is moot.
I’ve had 4 or 5 tough to solve problems with Mint Linux so far, and every time I start to get frustrated, I remember I no longer have to choose between “Yes” and “Remind me later” when I want “No”. After that I’m happy again.
I partially switched to Linux this week, I had an older Windows machine just laying around so I decided to install Linux (I went with Mint) sit it next to my regular Windows machine and set up a switch to easily switch between them. That way if I really need Windows, I still have it. I don’t think I will.
I’m still configuring the (now Linux) machine and getting everything like I like it, and all I keep wondering is why I didn’t try this sooner. There are so many cool things (like sftp right in the File Manager? right on). I have no complaints.
Steam has run every game I’ve tried with only minor tweaks (switching to recommended Proton versions for each game, basically). Gaming is not a problem on Linux anymore. I’ve run old games (Torchlight II, Portal 2, Skyrim) and new games (Oblivion Remastered, Baldur’s Gate) and the only problem has been my shit-ass video card just can’t run them basically (1050Ti, time to upgrade, lol).
A little while doing all this and I’ll convert the Windows machine to Linux and be rid of Windows altogether. Before the end of the year, hopefully. Everyone should give it a try.
I understand that things have changed a bit since I first moved over to Linux - moving from Red Hat Linux to Ubuntu ‘Warty Warthog’ was such a revelation in overall user-friendliness and usability, back in the day. But upgrading my graphics card from an NVidia one to an AMD was a similar change. I might have only just installed the base operating system and a desktop environment and haven’t got around to a web browser yet, but I’ve already got full hardware accelerated graphics - that’s crazy.
Most distros now make the NVidia drivers a complete non-issue, I think? My 6600XT is requiring just a few too many compromises on new games, so I’ll need something new too, sooner or later. I used to hold off on graphics cards updates until I could get something twice as good so that it was a noticeable upgrade, but I could buy a pretty decent second-hand car for all the ones which are ‘twice as good’ now.
An upgrade from a 1050 Ti shouldn’t be such a problem. Well done on keeping it alive so long - I had a GeForce GTX 970 that would have been a similar age, but it let out its magic smoke years ago.
I have been noticing a boost in people using Linux with gaming. There’s a lot of benefits. Most of the time Linux is better at battery and performance than the alteratives.
In addition, windows 11 is pretty unstable right now. Even the task manager has bugs haha.
Did they add AI to the task manager too?
They are vibe coding it.
Instead of closing out, task manager creates another instance of itself.
Its hilarious.
I’m doing my part!
Interesting to see that the KDE version of Fedora is more popular than the Gnome one, considering how long Gnome was the main DE there.
its probably because of how awful gnome is and being able to use it as if it was intuitive is like being some kind of 4th dimensional leftie with a wireless robotic hand.
or maybe because kde is much easier to use coming from windows
That’s interesting, because according to statcounter, linux usage actually went down last month, but I guess most browsers on linux will block those stats scripts
