On the flip side, SteamOS and the “success” of the steam deck is giving people here a false sense of “OMG THE YEAR OF LINUX IS FINALLY HERE!!!” because most people that buy a steam deck aren’t really “using linux” in the way that OP is talking about. They just bought a game console, and that game consoles OS is based on linux. On the steam surveys sure, it will show as say 5mil more people using linux - but that’s just 5 million steam deck sales, not laptops or desktops that have switched to Linux.
There isn’t any significant increase in people running Linux on their laptops or desktop computers.
Isn’t it the same if people use a steam deck or a computer? More people => more support for Linux software, regardless if they use the steam deck or not
That’s true for a lot of people, but I truly believe a very significant number of people are being exposed to Linux this way and will stick with it long-term. It will be a while until we see that reflected in the desktop and laptop statistics.
I haven’t used SteamOS (or even seen many videos of it), but from what I’ve heard it’s not shy about being a desktop operating system. Even the Steam Deck, which is marketed as a console like you said, lets you use it in desktop mode and run any Linux software without having to jump through any hoops. This isn’t like Android which is technically Linux deep under the hood but effectively completely detached from the Linux ecosystem. SteamOS is part of the Linux desktop ecosystem, and it’s proud of it.
On the flip side, SteamOS and the “success” of the steam deck is giving people here a false sense of “OMG THE YEAR OF LINUX IS FINALLY HERE!!!” because most people that buy a steam deck aren’t really “using linux” in the way that OP is talking about. They just bought a game console, and that game consoles OS is based on linux. On the steam surveys sure, it will show as say 5mil more people using linux - but that’s just 5 million steam deck sales, not laptops or desktops that have switched to Linux.
There isn’t any significant increase in people running Linux on their laptops or desktop computers.
Isn’t it the same if people use a steam deck or a computer? More people => more support for Linux software, regardless if they use the steam deck or not
That’s true for a lot of people, but I truly believe a very significant number of people are being exposed to Linux this way and will stick with it long-term. It will be a while until we see that reflected in the desktop and laptop statistics.
I haven’t used SteamOS (or even seen many videos of it), but from what I’ve heard it’s not shy about being a desktop operating system. Even the Steam Deck, which is marketed as a console like you said, lets you use it in desktop mode and run any Linux software without having to jump through any hoops. This isn’t like Android which is technically Linux deep under the hood but effectively completely detached from the Linux ecosystem. SteamOS is part of the Linux desktop ecosystem, and it’s proud of it.