LucShep

Of course, nobody said otherwise. But the point is not that Valve is incapable of making a bad product. The point is that when a company has a recent, hugely successful, well-supported hardware line in the same domain, it’s reasonable to set expectations based on that. Track record doesn’t guarantee perfection, but it absolutely informs the baseline. If it didn’t, nobody in the industry would care about reputation at all. That argument only works if Valve behaved like “other outfits,” which they don’t. Have you've been in unofficial populated forums with SteamDeck users, where it's pretty visible how happy users seem to be? Have you ever even tried a Steam Deck for that matter, to see how good it actually is? Valve doesn’t ship bloatware; doesn’t use mystery OEM parts; doesn’t hide thermals behind marketing; doesn’t lock hardware; doesn’t nickel-and-dime repairs; doesn't update hardware and software aggressively; it openly documents and supports modding, repair and OS flexibility. Comparing this to random OEMs promising “tight integration” is just a false equivalence. And yes, every device on Earth has a percentage of unhappy customers. That’s normal. But the Steam Deck’s satisfaction rate is extremely high - and that is relevant evidence. Sure - analysts, reviewers, OEM partners, hardware leakers, etc. But unless you’re claiming to be one of those people (and if you are, you’d be bound by NDA), then we’re all in the same position: we don’t know the price. And the price is the entire determining factor of whether this becomes one of two things, either 1) a mainstream PC-console or 2) a niche enthusiast box. So yes - until the price is known, any prediction is just speculation dressed up as certainty.

I’m not “assuming a ton.” I’m going by Valve’s proven behaviour with the Steam Deck - not by the horror-show OEM prebuilts you keep referring to. Valve already ships hardware with: - zero bloat - zero OEM corner-cutting - no garbage PSUs - no thermal disasters - no BIOS locks - no shady activation tricks - full transparency and repairability This is their established pattern. Pretending they’re suddenly going to turn into HP or Walmart because it fits your narrative is what doesn’t make sense. If anything, the burden of proof is on anyone claiming Valve will abandon their entire hardware philosophy overnight - not on the people pointing to their very public track record. Exactly - and that’s why the entire discussion hinges on the price. No one is claiming a $1200 Steam Machine will convert the masses. The point, as I mentioned before, is that the device has two completely different destinies: $600 - $700 --> mainstream, console-adjacent, massive adoption potential $1000 - $1200 --> niche box for a tiny audience So saying “at $1200 it won’t pull many people in” is just restating what’s already been said. Nobody disagreed with that. That’s why judging the whole concept right now, before the price is even known, doesn’t actually lead anywhere.

No, not really. You’re assuming the support load is for OS-tinkerers - it isn’t. Valve knows perfectly well that 95% of buyers will never install another OS - they have the stats from many thousands (millions?) of Steam Decks. The “install your own OS” option isn’t there to create support overhead. It exists so Valve doesn’t artificially lock down the hardware and get roasted by enthusiasts or the tech press. Same reason the Deck allows dual-boot. Supporting that tiny minority doesn’t meaningfully increase cost - they already handle it today. And the “prebuilt myth” angle still misses the real picture. You keep bringing up your clients with awful prebuilts. But those buyers are exactly the demographic that would benefit from a SteamOS machine - which has no bloatware, no garbage-tier PSUs, no mismatched OEM parts, no thermals designed by a drunk intern, no Windows activation tricks, no BIOS locks. Your clients come to you because they bought trash. A Valve-designed, tightly-validated SteamOS (Linux) box aims to be the complete opposite of that. Calling it a “toy priced like serious hardware” also ignores Valve’s entire hardware philosophy: low margins, ecosystem expansion, long-term thinking. They can price aggressively (or so everyone hopes) because the real money comes from Steam, not from selling boxes. The Steam Deck already proved this approach works: sell near cost, grow the ecosystem, and the rest follows. Whether this machine succeeds or fails comes down to price. Not whether a handful of people install their own OS, and not whether you’ve had to save people from Walmart prebuilts.

You're still merging completely different groups into one bucket, and that’s where your logic breaks. “Why allow OS installs?” Because it costs Valve almost nothing and keeps the enthusiast minority happy. It’s the same reason the Steam Deck allows it, and yet 95% of Deck owners never touched BIOS, GRUB, or drivers. Flexibility ≠ target audience. Sony adding “Developer Mode” didn’t mean the PS4 console was marketed to game studios. The people who buy terrible prebuilts aren’t “in-betweeners”. They’re uninformed buyers. They don’t compare value, they don’t know what VRMs or power limits are, and they definitely don’t swing by a boutique PC shop before buying. They buy whatever looks simple and available - a console, a laptop, or a flashy “gaming tower” from a megastore. Those are the people a Steam Machine can actually pull away from the garbage-tier prebuilts you’re describing. And yes, ironically, that benefits small PC shops too - fewer customers burned by trash hardware means fewer people entering the hobby with a bad first experience. SteamOS is precisely why this product has a shot. You keep comparing it to Windows prebuilts, but that’s not what Valve is selling. SteamOS is dramatically simpler than Windows for a gaming-only machine: no drivers to hunt; no telemetry; no popups; no forced updates; no bloat; no “Windows being Windows” moments. For 99% of mainstream users, SteamOS is less friction than a Windows PC and closer to a console UX. That’s the whole point. “My clients made bad prebuilt buys” Of course they did - but that’s still a different demographic. Your clients are people who 1) know enough to seek help, and 2) are already inside the PC ecosystem. The mass audience Valve is targeting never ever makes it to your door. They’re buying a console, or the BestBuy special, or a gaming laptop with a single heatpipe. That’s the market Valve is trying to intercept. And that’s why judging this thing as “just another prebuilt PC” is missing the strategic intent entirely.

Those people are not the target for this product. Here’s the key point: casual customers - the ones who buy prebuilt systems - outnumber enthusiasts by an order of magnitude. They don’t want to research parts, compare components, diagnose issues, update BIOS, or ask for help on a forum. Their priority is convenience, stability, and a big known established brand behind the product. A good analogy is motorcycles: I can do basic maintenance on my motorcycle - buy the parts, change the oil and filter, coolant, spark plugs, maybe atempt the clutch or secondary transmission if desperate. But I’m still part of a single-digit percentage of the entire motorcycle customer base. Most riders will never do that. They go to the official dealer or workshop, because they want convenience, support, and zero hassle. It’s the same with PCs. The same logic applies here. Laymen don’t care about what enthusiasts can do for $600. They’re not going to search for your advice, my advice, or anyone else’s. They look for a large mainstream corporation that offers a plug-and-play product and 24/7 support - the same way Nintendo and Sony sell consoles and games to millions of people who don’t want to tinker. For the mainstream customer, a “PC-console” with official support and a huge library is appealing - and that’s why this has the potential to be successful. Not because it beats what enthusiasts can build, but because it targets the millions of people who will never build a PC in the first place. That’s exactly why this device has the potential to be successful - and yes, a game changer. Not for us. For them.

I'm seeing people on other forums already crucifying the device without understanding what it actually is, who it’s for, or what Valve’s strategy looks like. The reality is very simple: the Steam Machine can either be a massive success or a complete non-event - and the deciding factor is the price. If Valve launches it around $600 - $700, it becomes a true “PC-console” for mainstream/casual gamers. Accessible, simple, fully supported, with instant access to the biggest game library in existence (often at unbeatable prices, especially with third-party key sellers like Eneba, Kinguin, etc), and without the complexity or cost of building a PC. At that price point, it will sell extremely well and dramatically boost SteamOS adoption - which is clearly Valve’s long-term goal. But if the machine comes in at $1000 - $1200, the story changes completely. The casual audience disappears, enthusiasts will just build their own rigs, and the Steam Machine becomes “just another prebuilt PC", losing its entire strategic purpose. The key thing people keep forgetting is this: Valve has no shareholders. They don’t need to appease anyone. They can afford a long-term plan and sell a ton of units slowly over time. They can sell hardware at low margins (or even at a loss) to push the ecosystem - and the Steam Deck’s huge success already proved that this strategy works. So right now, judging the product without knowing the actual price makes no sense. At $600 - $700 it’s a game changer. At $1000+ it’s a niche box. Price is literally the whole story.

I agree that all this stuff should come pre-installed, but it's just a matter of time now until apps will be jumping to get on Steam OS, now that the Steam Machine is coming out. Worst case scenario, the Steam Machine will do this like on the Steam Deck. On the Deck, from desktop mode you install apps that you want through Discover (the app that has a shopping bag icon), which is the "store" to get your apps. Then, on Steam (change to desktop version if you're in "Big Picture Mode"), on bottom left press "add a game", select "add a non-Steam game", and add an installed app to it. Then you can go back to gaming mode if desired and launch your installed app from there. Spotify is in there. Whatsapp is in there. Kmail or Thunderbird (for mail-client) is in there. As for streaming services (Netflix, etc), I believe it's still done like this on the Deck:

Yes, a “PC console” designed for the massive audience that wants PC gaming without the complexity of PC gaming. The idea is brilliant, IMO. The price is really what will determine whether it becomes an overnight massive hit or sees slower adoption than antecipated. Either way, I think the Steam Machine will find its audience. It will do very well for casual gamers who are interested in PC gaming but feel intimidated by the whole environment - and that’s the key to its success. The Deck can already run modern AAA games at 1280×800. Multiply that performance (6x faster, so they say) and casual gamers will be more than satisfied. Steam’s catalog is the real weapon here, we’re talking about twenty years of (thousands of) games - the largest, cheapest, and most accessible library in gaming history. Putting that into a plug-and-play box is a huge deal. There’s a huge number of players who already buy games on Steam but feel intimidated by PC hardware, drivers, settings, crashes, troubleshooting, etc. A fully supported, pre-built PC with SteamOS bridges the gap between consoles (simple) and PCs (flexible). They want one thing: click play -> game works. A supported, console-like PC solves all that. This machine is for them. Some more details for those that missed it:

I'm not going to skim through two pages of posts, most of it filled with misunderstood back and forth posts. What I'll say is this: We're witnessing something important here - potentially a new branch in PC gaming. This will have repercussions. What Valve is showing isn’t a cheap solution for simmers or hardcore users. It’s a way to democratize PC gaming for the mainstream: people who lack the money or time to learn, build and maintain a gaming PC, but still want full guaranteed compatibility and proper support. Valve did all the research; they have the money and the means. Most of us here aren’t the target audience. This is aimed at laymen who just want to get into PC gaming, buy games on Steam and play them, whether alone or with others, without worrying about hardware, drivers, BIOS tweaks and updates, OS, conflicts, or troubleshooting. Some of them will eventually grow into enthusiasts later. If the rumored price for the Steam Machine ($800 to $1000) is accurate, it’ll be hard to match the same hardware, pre-built, fully tuned, ready-to-go, and backed by 24/7 support. And pairing that with a highly optimized Linux-based OS (SteamOS) makes this not only competition for consoles, but a direct challenge to Windows. I can already imagine more advanced users installing Linux distros on it (like Bazzite, Nobara, Pop!_OS, etc), running far lighter than Windows ever would, turning the machine into a lightweight, fully capable daily-use PC that still games well. Meanwhile, SteamOS improvements (drivers, kernel, Vulkan), thanks to the involvement of major players like AMD, Nvidia, and Valve, will spill over into the wider Linux ecosystem, benefiting everyone. At a time when PC hardware and game development feel stale, overpriced, and overly complex - consoles aren’t doing great either - and when younger generations love tech but hate technicalities, this fits perfectly. This might end up being even more important than many already expect. The biggest impact won’t be the hardware itself - it will be: 1. The normalization of pre-built Linux gaming PCs. This alone forces Microsoft to react, and also pushes OEMs to start taking Linux seriously. 2. The massive refinement SteamOS will bring to Linux gaming. And as mentioned, all other distros benefit from that work - drivers, kernel, Vulkan, etc. 3. The existence of official support + console-like stability in a PC form factor. This directly addresses the exact problem that the average user doesn’t want to deal with. 4. A “Steam Deck ×100” effect. The Deck already shook the industry. A full Steam Machine will do it even more.

The RX 7900 XTX 24GB is basically same performance as the newer RX 9070 XT 16GB, but the latter provides better solutions (FSR4, better RT), better power consumption, better temps, and better support (being the most recent launch, it certainly gets the most focus for AMD Drivers). The VRAM is really the only reason to get an RX7900XTX. But then it's getting long in the tooth, it sure won't be impressive now. The $799.99 price is okay but not all that amazing for it in the current day. The thing is, that's complicated to judge if, for some reason, this is really what you want... The RTX 5070Ti 16GB will perform better than those two for DCS VR. I'm unsure of what made you unimpressed with the RTX 5070Ti but it's over 35% faster (at 4K res.) than your RX 6900XT on pure rasterization averages, so not even counting superior and newer solutions (DLSS, RT, encoders, etc) and noticeably better VR behaviour. The problem of VRAM consumption is a very old discussion in DCS, and it's up to ED and third parties to solve it. Forcing people to get stupid expensive GPUs just to address VRAM concerns has been a bit of a meme for DCS VR, but I'm sure that is not their intended scenario. The common conclusion is that the GPU market and the prices have been, still are, and probably will remain FUBAR. Honestly, I think there's little to no point in getting anything faster than an RX 9070XT 16GB (if preference is AMD) or RTX 5070Ti 16GB (if preference is Nvidia). And why? ... the mentioned RTX5080 16GB is just too expensive for the somewhat minor improvement in performance that it brings over those two. ... the awaited "RTX 50 Super" series, which bring 24GB versions for the RTX 5070Ti and RTX 5080, has been postponed - rumour puts it at 2nd to 3rd quarter 2026 (we'll see). ... the RTX 5090 32GB is just a completely different discussion - no offense to those who buy/bought them - because it's just silly, hilarious really. ... the RTX 4090 24GB, which was so criticized, ironically became "the last great Nvidia release" - no longer available (those owning one should keep it as long as possible). If this is about using it for DCS VR, then it's definitely Nvidia (not even a contest). It that's the use case, if upgrading from an RX 6900XT, my vote goes to the RTX 5070Ti. Or maybe a used RTX 3090/Ti 24GB if at $600 or less.

With Windows 10 reaching end of life (EOL), and if one is unwilling to upgrade to Windows 11 or uninterested in Linux (for whatever reason), using a “customized” version of Windows 10/11 focused on lightweight design and privacy could be a practical solution. These “customized” versions - such as ReviOS, AtlasOS and Tiny11 - are unofficial editions of Windows, modified by independent communities. The goal is to provide the same Windows experience, but with: Less bloatware (no Cortana, Edge, telemetry, Microsoft Store apps, etc.) Better performance on weaker or older PCs More privacy (fewer background services sending data to Microsoft) Faster boot times and lower RAM/disk usage _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Disadvantages / Risks Not officially supported by Microsoft (no warranty, no automatic updates) Some versions come from non-transparent sources → always a risk of altered code Certain features may not work (e.g., Windows Defender, Microsoft Store, updates) Sometimes they remove too much, causing possible issues with drivers or apps _________________________________________________________________________________________________ ReviOS Best balance between performance, stability, and compatibility. Focused on performance and low latency, popular among gamers; keeps full compatibility with games and drivers. Base: Official Windows 10/11 with deep optimization Focus: Reduced latency, less bloatware & telemetry, full game and driver compatibility Works with: NVIDIA/AMD drivers, Steam, DCS World, peripherals, etc. Pros: Faster boot and system response Keeps Defender, Windows Update, and Store optional Clean installation — nothing important removed Cons: Updates are manual (you apply project patches) Some Microsoft online features (account, OneDrive) are disabled by default Official site: https://revi.cc AtlasOS Focused on maximum FPS and minimum latency. Similar to ReviOS but more aggressive, aiming for maximum FPS and lowest input lag. Built for: eSports and pure performance More aggressive removals: Defender, Windows Update, Cortana, Edge, etc. Best for: Gaming-only PCs Cons: No native protection (you’ll need your own antivirus/firewall) Some Windows apps/features won’t work Official site: https://atlasos.net Tiny10 For very old or low-end hardware. Extremely lightweight versions made by NTDEV, based on clean Microsoft ISOs. Good for very old PCs, but very minimal. Extremely lightweight (under 10 GB installed) Comes without: Windows Update, Store, Defender, and many dependencies Best for: Old PCs, offline setups, or testing Not recommended for daily or online use Author: NTDEV — https://archive.org/details/tiny-10 (note: it’s best to verify on the official NTDEV blog before downloading) _________________________________________________________________________________________________ If your goal is to stay on Windows, without upgrading to Windows 11 and without suffering MS shenanigans, while making it lighter, faster, and more private, these alternatives may be a solution - provided you download only from the official project sites and verify the files’ integrity. Anyway, just a heads up.

FWIW, you got a couple more errors on that LOG, make sure it's not a mod (or a problematic module) creating the problem: Line 205: ERROR EDCORE (528): Drivers errors while mounting coremods/aircraft/f-15e/liveries/f-15ese/usaf 17th ws af90 low vis clean.zip: Line 206: ERROR EDCORE (528): ZipDriver: Failed to open zip archive coremods/aircraft/f-15e/liveries/f-15ese/usaf 17th ws af90 low vis clean.zip. Line 223: INFO DX11BACKEND (544): DX11Renderer initialization (w:2560 h:1440 fullscrn:0 vsync:0 adapter:0 monitor:0 shaderErrors:1) Line 239 to 258: ERROR DX11BACKEND (544): Shader "/shaders/ParticleSystem2/groundPuffComp.fx" failed to compile. Reason: /shaders/ParticleSystem2/groundPuffComp.fx:65:1: W4300: Redefinition of LIGHTING_DECAY. /shaders/ParticleSystem2/groundPuffComp.fx:66:1: W4300: Redefinition of LIGHTING_DECAY_SECOND. /shaders/ParticleSystem2/groundPuffComp.fx:67:1: W4300: Redefinition of LIGHTING_FLAGS. /shaders/ParticleSystem2/groundPuffComp.fx:68:1: W4300: Redefinition of LIGHTING_SHADOW_PARTICLES_COUNT. /shaders/ParticleSystem2/groundPuffComp.fx:69:1: W4300: Redefinition of LIGHTING_WORLD_OFFSET. ParticleSystem2/common/clusterLighting.hlsl:77:31: W4300: Redefinition of ComputeLighting. ParticleSystem2/common/clusterLighting.hlsl:78:39: W4300: Redefinition of ComputeLightingInternal. ParticleSystem2/common/clusterLighting.hlsl:79:36: W4300: Redefinition of GetParticleLightInfo. ParticleSystem2/common/clusterLighting.hlsl:80:42: W4300: Redefinition of GetShadowParticleLightInfo. /shaders/ParticleSystem2/groundPuffComp.fx:75:1: W4300: Redefinition of LIGHTING_DECAY. /shaders/ParticleSystem2/groundPuffComp.fx:76:1: W4300: Redefinition of LIGHTING_DECAY_SECOND. /shaders/ParticleSystem2/groundPuffComp.fx:77:1: W4300: Redefinition of LIGHTING_FLAGS. /shaders/ParticleSystem2/groundPuffComp.fx:78:1: W4300: Redefinition of LIGHTING_WORLD_OFFSET. /shaders/ParticleSystem2/groundPuffComp.fx:79:1: W4300: Redefinition of LIGHTING_PARTICLE_SHADOW_GET_FUNC. ParticleSystem2/common/clusterLighting.hlsl:77:31: W4300: Redefinition of ComputeLighting. ParticleSystem2/common/clusterLighting.hlsl:78:39: W4300: Redefinition of ComputeLightingInternal. ParticleSystem2/common/clusterLighting.hlsl:79:36: W4300: Redefinition of GetParticleLightInfo. ParticleSystem2/common/clusterLighting.hlsl:80:42: W4300: Redefinition of GetShadowParticleLightInfo. /shaders/ParticleSystem2/groundPuffComp.fx:902:20: E5017: Aborting due to not yet implemented feature: Non-direct structured resource store.

Bazzite protects you from yourself but it also locks you in when you want to act like a "power user". I'd say to take Nobara (KDE or Gnome, as you prefer) for a spin. It's as close as “Bazzite without restrictions” as it gets right now. It's mutable Fedora base (meaning you can install everything with dnf). It comes with the same game packages and optimizations (Proton GE, DXVK, OBS, MangoHUD, codecs, etc). No crashes - you can tinker with the system, customize everything, compile, etc. More traditional, but equivalent in performance. In practice, “Nobara is what Bazzite would be if it were mutable.” It only lacks automatic rollback and atomic update (which you rarely need).

Dude, relevant for what? Steam stats are only a really tiny portion of the global user stats, which was what was being discussed when you replied with that (once again!). People are getting tired of Windows shenanigans, and the closest working alternative is Linux, period. If that's not your case, fine - use Win11 and the upcoming Win12. That's your choice. If gamers (including DCS users) feel stuck with an OS that they despise, knowing that it's clearly going from bad to worse, then why would anyone oppose to the idea of exploring some other OS that may provide most (if not all) of the same functionality with none of such problems? And where does that hurt you, really, for you to insist (on and on and on and on) with a point that doesn't relate? Don't like it, don't use it. Interested? Then stay tuned, or maybe give it a go and pick a distro (my 2 cents). That's it. Got nothing to do with stats.

Just to clarify where those "ballpark figures" came from - they're all pulled from public, human-compiled datasets rather than anything hidden or speculative. Steam Hardware & Software Survey: https://store.steampowered.com/hwsurvey Linux share sits around 2-3 percent of monthly active users, roughly equal to about 3 million PCs. StatCounter Global Stats: https://gs.statcounter.com/os-market-share/desktop/worldwide Reports Linux desktop share between 2 and 3 percent worldwide through 2025. Flathub Stats Dashboard: Flatpak downloads have roughly doubled since 2022, showing higher desktop activity. The official Flathub statistics page: “Statistics | Flathub” shows total downloads and apps. Flathub - Apps for Linux A news article reporting that Flathub has passed 2+ billion downloads. https://www.phoronix.com/news/Flathub-Two-Billion-Downloads The stats directory showing year-folders for Flathub downloads (indicating long term data collection). Flathub - Apps for Linux Canonical / Ubuntu blogs and Launchpad metrics: Canonical has published multiple posts and pages showing user metrics, repository activity, and desktop adoption trends confirming Ubuntu and its derivatives remain the most widely used Linux desktop base. “A first look at desktop metrics” (June 2018) — Canonical’s initial data about Ubuntu Desktop installs, upgrades, and geographic distribution. https://ubuntu.com/blog/a-first-look-at-desktop-metrics “Canonical and Ubuntu – user statistics” (October 2018) — Explains Canonical’s approach to telemetry, user-count transparency, and privacy. https://ubuntu.com/blog/canonical-and-ubuntu-user-statistics “Ubuntu Live Stats” (Launchpad.net) — Publicly visible Ubuntu ecosystem metrics (bugs, translations, code, and repo activity). https://launchpad.net/ubuntu-stats “Ubuntu Desktop 24.04 LTS: Noble Numbat deep dive” (April 2024) — Mentions that “Ubuntu powers millions of PCs and laptops around the world.” https://ubuntu.com/blog/ubuntu-desktop-24-04-noble-numbat-deep-dive Arch and Manjaro mirror telemetry: Arch and Manjaro maintain public mirror directories showing ISO and package activity; timestamps and file volumes indicate consistent year-over-year growth since 2022. Arch Linux Downloads page: https://archlinux.org/download/ Example Arch ISO mirror (dotsrc.org): https://mirrors.dotsrc.org/archlinux/iso/latest/ Example Manjaro mirror listing: https://mirror.archlinux.tw/Manjaro/pool/overlay/ (NOTE: the caveat here is these sources demonstrate that mirror/ISO/package telemetry exists and is visible (downloads, timestamps etc). However, one can not locate a source that publishes “steady rise” as a quoted official growth figure for arch/manjaro ISO downloads publicly in a simple graph or table with date-based trend (at least not in the sources I found). So the statement “show a steady rise … since 2022” is still reasonable deduction (based on visible increasing timestamps, releases, mirror traffic) rather than a clean “here’s the table” citation) UnionTech / Deepin (UOS) press releases and IDC analyst reports (2023-2024): mention "millions of users" for Deepin / UOS deployments across Chinese government and SOEs - exact figures vary. “Linux Deepin’s big brother claims it’s hit three million installs” (by The Register) — reports UOS has “over three million installs” in China. theregister.com “Recently … UOS has shipped over 6 million units in the desktop market” (on a Chinese-site article) beijingetown.com.cn “Deepin community … global users over 5.4 million … its downstream commercial distribution UnionTech UOS has been installed on over 6 million devices in China.” linuxjournal.com “China-made OS aims … with potential mass market of 300 million individual users” (in a 2020 article) globaltimes.cn (NOTE: These sources support the idea of “millions of users/devices/customers,” but they do not always offer a fully transparent breakdown (free vs. paid, region, exact dates)). In the end, none of these sources agree perfectly - which is exactly why any figure has to be treated as an estimate, "ballpark figures". Combining them gives a reasonable global Linux desktop range of roughly 40-60 million users (about 2-4 percent market share). Whether one prefers StatCounter, Steam, or distro-mirror data, they all point to the same trend: Linux's share is small but steadily growing, helped by better drivers and more user-friendly distros. And THAT trend was the only real point behind my post back there! Anyway, the sources above speak for themselves - folks can check whichever they trust most. Negative. You're not paying attention to the sequence of posts and their context (which is EVERYTHING). He's posting the same chart that he has repeatedly posted for eons, without context to the post (mine) to which he directly replied to, with that. He's trolling -again- and you're fueling him - YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED!!!!!111111oneoneoneone So, this thread starts with news that there'll be changes on Linux, involving Vulkan, Nvidia and VK3D, which should boost Nvidia to work as good there as it does in Windows. Which will soon benefit anyone - including people in here - who does not want to continue using Windows (for all the valid reasons!) and have been at the side fence looking at Linux (deterred by the lower gaming performance of Nvidia there). Then it became a back and forth argument about the validity of Linux in the gaming scenario..... Then its validity in the grand scheme of global usage..... Then it spiraled into a “philosophical” fight about AI credibility rather than staying on-topic about Linux...... Seriously, WTF has gone wrong in these forums??