I'm kinda surprised this entirely forgot to mention the SteamDeck. I'd love to know how much of an impact that had, considering apparently 3 million units have been sold (according to Valve). Alas, how many of those users know they are running Linux is another question.
Just want to say that all of these replies missed the mark so much by debating desktops and desktop modes and BSD on a game console...
While this graph says that 3% of desktop users are running Linux, what it means is GNU/Linux and not just the Linux kernel. The steam deck runs GNU/Linux as the OS regardless of it being in desktop mode or console mode. a Chromebook runs Linux, but that is still ChromeOS. Any android device runs Linux, but that is Android. we are not talking about the kernel. We are talking about GNU on top of Linux as an OS that people use in some way as a desktop.
By that logic these articles should be about FreeBSD/NetBSD not Linux cause they have more presence by running on every PS3/PS4/PS5. Roughly ~250m compared to the 3m
But other than through unofficial modding how many of those expose an open BSD environment? The Steam Deck has a desktop mode as a selling point which functions exactly like a Linux desktop.
That desktop mode is very inconvenient to use in handheld mode so the vast majority of users use it only to apply fixes to specific games, install emulators and the like and then switch back to the Steam GUI asap.
I've had mine for about a week now, and am using it more than I use my laptop. The "desktop" mode works more than well enough for web browsing and such.
The biggest thing that changed for me was learning that you can use both trackpads on the keyboard at the same time, and use the trigger buttons to "press" a key - or to press shift if you use the opposite trigger from the side your finger is moving.
The Deck can be compared to a laptop computer with specialized controls and a touch screen. It runs a desktop OS, with desktop programs and games. You can use it as a normal desktop computer, connected to a screen and peripherals, and this is by design.
The same can't be said of the PS; the PS isn't a desktop computer.
> The native operating system of the PlayStation 4 is Orbis OS, which is a fork of FreeBSD version 9.0 which was released on January 12, 2012.[6][7]
That doesn't mean it's running BSD. For example, MacOS runs a non-BSD kernel with lots of BSD networking code added on-top. It is not a BSD-based Operating System but it does use BSD code to create it's environment. I would not for a single second believe that the PS4 runs an unmodified FreeBSD kernel. There is just no upstream code to support this claim.
>Alas, how many of those users know they are running Linux is another question.
That's the whole point. Probably 99% of computer (anything that uses a processor I guess qualifies a computer these days) users in this world don't really care what's running underneath as long it gets the job done. If something can run linux underneath and can still pass as acceptable that's a huge win I think.
This is about desktop market share. Even though Steam Deck has KDE on it, out of the box it boots into Steam and I suspect it is enough for majority of users.
SteamDecks aren’t desktop PCs. If you were including gaming consoles/handhelds, then BSD would be way ahead of Linux with all the PlayStations that have been sold (and maybe with Nintendo switches too, depending on how you chose to count those).
It’s still not a desktop PC. You’ll notice that iOS, Android and iPadOS aren’t included in the list either, even though the devices that run those operating systems can also replicate some subset of the desktop pc experience (and much more comprehensively than the steam deck can).
At best it would be a general purpose mobile device, but even that is rather contrived. How many users do you imagine are using a steam deck as a substitute for a desktop or a different mobile device? I would guess something very close to 0.
Anecdotal but I bring my steam deck with a dock and M&K with me when I visit family since I don't have a desktop computer there.
Also, the Steam Deck's OS is by far the closest you can get to a traditional Linux distro since it's GNU+Linux under the hood. The built-in desktop mode is extremely close to a basic KDE Arch install, especially after you disable read-only mode. Android doesn't have as full-featured of a desktop experience unless we count Samsung DeX and even then display out is available on a vast minority of devices. iOS has no native display out and iPadOS doesn't even support normal 16:9 screens without black borders. The issue with all of the above devices is that their "desktop" modes are janky afterthoughts while on the Steam Deck it's a core feature.
Your guess is very wrong. I've been using my deck as a laptop occasionally, and I've seen a lot of posts on a sub on the recently deceased site of people using it as such.
And why not? It's basically a touchscreen laptop without a keyboard and with a small screen.
Also, the deck does not replicate a subset of the desktop experience, it just contains a desktop experience. Unless the KDE desktop is not a desktop now. If that's the case - it runs windows.
> that run those operating systems can also replicate some subset of the desktop pc experience
But Steam Deck is just running a fork of Arch not some other operating system. From analytics perspective it's indistinguishable to any Linux PC. Also IIRC you can just connect it a display which would turn into a desktop PC.
> At best it would be a general purpose mobile device, but even that is rather contrived. How many users do you imagine are using a steam deck as a substitute for a desktop or a different mobile device?
Is it contrived? They've shown, in their official marketing videos, demonstrations of the steam deck being hooked up to an external monitor and being used to run KDE and Windows 10.
A desktop PC is not a type of operating system. It’s a type of computer designed for a specific use case, distinct from servers, mobile devices, handheld gaming devices or gaming consoles. A windows server or Linux server with KDE/gnome is not a desktop. A mobile phone isn’t a desktop, and it wouldn’t become a desktop even if you installed a plain Linux distro with KDE on it. A PlayStation, switch or Xbox isn’t a desktop PC, and neither is a steamdeck.
It’s an arbitrarily defined category of computer, and this statistics site doesn’t mention how they’ve specified that definition, but it seems they haven’t included any server, mobile/handheld, or gaming console devices at all, not just the steamdeck.
It really sounds like you don't understand how the OS is set up on the steam deck. It's a normal desktop environment with a customized version of steam installed.
If laptops get to be included (which they usually are), then steamdeck gets to be included.
It doesn't replicate "some subset" of the desktop experience. It does everything a small tower can, plus things it can't do.
Steam Deck's desktop environment is barely usable without connecting it to a dock and using an external keyboard and mouse.
You won't use it as a daily driver in handheld mode. The virtual keyboard covers half of the screen, the touchscreen is unusable as a mouse and touchpads are inconvenient.
I deliberately didn't compare it to a laptop, because the topic at hand is whether it qualifies as a "desktop". If it can function without an external keyboard and mouse that's a bonus feature.
I would. It's designed to be used as a desktop by plugging in a DisplayPort cable, hooking up a keyboard and mouse, and switching it to KDE desktop mode or installing Windows. This is a documented and officially supported feature, and has been shown in Valve's marketing material.
