Valve released the statistics from the Steam Hardware & Software Survey for November 2025, which shows once again that Linux use is trending nicely upwards.
2026 year of the Linux desktop?
Every year is the year of the Linux desktop. Always had been.
If it isn’t, it never will be.
Linux has everything going for it in '26, people pissed with Microsoft, Apple still not doing anything in the space, no one cares about CoD any more, and Valve have their computer coming out.
Always has been
Hey that’s me! I switched about a week ago. Still slowly going through my library and getting them all working, but I’ve got Elden Ring and Balatro so far and that’s more than enough for now.
It’ll be you the next time you click allow for a steam hardware survey. Mine will be part of december’s for the first time since I switched, so I’m helping next month’s number increase.
Though kinda funny how for a steam survey, I’m all for it, but any other attempt to get usage data gets a fuck no from me. I hope all future valve owners understand the value of that trust and don’t try to cash in on it like some MBA that who thinks thinking of the future means extrapolating the current quarter’s increase in earnings indefinitely into the future.
A lifetime of not completely shitting the bed helps. I am also deeply deeply distrustful of most info gathering too. It’s half the reason I switched. I don’t usually like the newest windows on launch because they ratchet up the surveillance every time. The other half is my hardware isn’t good enough for windows 11 and I’m not upgrading.
Linux users on Lemmy hit an all-time high
No joke I wonder how many of us nerds are on linux/lemmy.
We’re a big bubble of linux users. I brought up Android update enabling use of graphical linux programs, and my coworker (in IT) said “why are you so obsessed with Linux”
This got a full belly laugh from me. 😂
You’re welcome to ask questions here ❤️
I used to work with Linux systems designed in the 90s. I’m honestly surprised how simple it’s been so far. I still have my windows partition just in case, but I haven’t had any reason to use it.
A graph that goes up constantly (even if it’s slowly) is always at an all time high.
This one won’t peak for a few years. So a new all time high every month until then.
I love how diverse the Linux distros breakdown is. SteamOS of course, but also Arch, Mint, CachyOS, Bazzite and so on. Choice. And because this is open source software work done by one community potentially helps all others. It’s fucking beautiful 🥲
I think from now on Linux will be hitting all time highs every time you check
It’s only up from here
It’s not issue-free, but what is? I had shit break randomly on Windows too. At least for me fiddling with the compatibility settings usually fixes any problems on Mint, so if anything it’s easier than figuring out how the fuck Windows has managed to break itself this time.
Also: look, ma, I’m in the internet news!
I was hosting a session of 7 days to die some weeks ago from Linux Mint and it didn’t work (worked the 3 times before). Everyone was like uhh yeah, probably a Linux problem?
I reminded them of the trillion hours they spent in their lives fixing a multiplayer server on Windows and if it ever came to their mind that Windows could be the problem. They agreed and apologized quickly.People tend to forget how much tinkering they need to do on Windows to run stuff. How often did I try some “compatibility mode stuff” to execute an old game on Windows?
As a tip from someone who also used to host game servers on Linux mint (and now Ubuntu server), you will save yourself so many headaches if you use an open-source container program like Pterodactyl Panel. Even if a game isn’t officially supported (like 7 days to die), someone’s already made a community script for the game that can be imported in 4 or so clicks.
Trust me, it’s a hell of a lot better than the manual option on Windows or Linux for games XD
It really pisses me off when something doesn’t work and the first thing someone says is “must be Linux”. Bro, I moved away from Windows because of all the bugs there. Don’t try to bullshit me into thinking you live a bugfree life.
My system is as fast as when I first got it (minus maybe the extra bloat websites have acquired due to bugger JS libraries and unnecessarily big assets). On windows reinstalling every year or every second year was normal.
Got the survey the other day on my OpenSUSE laptop and my OpenSUSE Steam Deck. I’m doing my part!
You put opensuse on your steam deck eh?
Yepp.
2026 is definitely the year
Also new here. So from what I can tell. You really shouldn’t mix a windows steam library with the Linux steam library? Correct? I mean to avoid all issues. I have it running in a separate space.
It’s best practice to keep it separate, and that mostly just has to do with how the different file systems are handled.
This. The problem is Windows can’t read ext4 or Btrfs, and though Linux can handle NTFS, it isn’t great.
When I was first switching to Linux a few years ago, I did have a shared library using NTFS. It mostly just worked, but the occasional game would refuse to start, and I had no issues once I was no longer using NTFS.
There is an installable btrfs driver for Windows. No idea how trustworthy it is, though.
And yeah, accessing Steam games on an NTFS partition from Linux is a recipe for permission issues. Just don’t.
Yah. I split the drive so we will see how it goes. But memory is cheap. I’m not messing around with game saves that could possibly take away hours of my progress.
I think you mean storage. Memory is, at the moment, oddly expensive.
The only thing stopping me is I can’t figure out how to remap the side buttons on my razer MMO mouse in Linux.
Try Polychromatic
I have. That allows for control of lighting, but doesn’t do key mapping/profiles.
Have you tried this?
https://github.com/sezanzeb/input-remapper
It’s the only thing that’s worked for my mouse. There’s also Piper if your mouse is supported.
libratbag and Piper don’t support my mouse (or any razer mice), unfortunately. I’ve also tried input remapper… couldn’t get it working right on Bazzite, but maybe I was just doing something very wrong. Will give it another try!
If it doesn’t work, you could try running Razer’s software through wine as well
I’ve been using input-remapper with my Naga for a long time, so it should work (Tumbleweed with Wayland). But the software is quite quirky and can be a bit of a pain to setup and learn. Hope you manage to figure it out!
I think I figured out the problem… It has onboard memory for one profile, whichever is selected in the UI. My default profile has a bunch of buttons mapped that do not register as key presses when booted into Linux, so input remapper doesn’t pick those up when the mouse button is pressed.
My solution was to create a profile that had all of the side buttons mapped as regular keyboard keys, and activate that profile before booting into Linux.
I remember it being a bit odd to set up. Worked quite well for me on my Logitech mouse a few years ago. But maybe the switch to Wayland has caused problems for it, who knows?
I have a Razer Naga Left-Handed Edition and I’ve just used input-remapper with success. might depend on if you’re on Wayland or X11. dunno, just worked for me.
