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Original /r/linux_gaming pengwing by uoou.
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Is this some coded way of saying less Chinese users? What does simplified Chinese dropping even mean?
I was puzzled by this too, so I took one for the team and clicked the link. Yes it does appear to mean that there were less users using the Chinese language in this survey than the one for the previous month, which implies fewer Chinese users: "Last month we saw quite a sharp drop for the Linux stats, which coincided with Simplified Chinese once again rising as the language choice on Steam. This is something that happens now and then."
Why there is a link between Chinese users and Windows is an interesting question. Could be related to a higher number of Internet cafés there - not sure if that's still true but it used to be - and/or greater acceptability and availability of pirated software in China compared to Europe and USA causing reduced demand for free alternatives.
Seems you got more out of the horrible link than me :) It is bad.
Having been to many a Chinese Internet cafe 网吧 in China and Japan, they have all run windows. I think steam keeps getting blocked or something by the gov as well. You’re right that piracy is very commonplace in China too. I bet it’s a decrease on steam use not windows.
Still, what a weird way to say less Chinese users. Also simplified Chinese is a written language, why don’t they just say mainland Chinese?
I did my part, I declined the survey because I was temporarily on a Windows partition when it asked.
I was on my Windows disk temporarily and still accepted. Felt bad afterwards, but also I wanted game devs to know there are still people using 6 core CPUs lol
In the past I've counted for both Linux and Mac OS though. I'm chaotic
Are we looking at different surveys? 6 core CPUs ate literally the most popular choice RN
Ah yeah I don't know anyone with under 8 which is why I'm trying to keep the 6 cores represented while I'm still using it. Keep the averages low so devs don't start optimizing everything for 12 or more cores lol
True, each os is counted each time. Not sure if my own custom build is interesting to them. Think they care about 8 hard drives? Lol
Surely the average user has 3 SSDs too
as expected with the Simplified Chinese language dropping the Linux stats have shot back up.
Am I an idiot? I don't understand what this means. Why would they drop Chinese from their languages? And why would dropping Chinese make people switch to Linux?
I think it is because it is not total number of Linux users, but the proportional number of Linux users compared to windows and Mac users. So the group of users who use the Simplified Chinese language must have had a lot more windows users in comparison to Linux users, and when it was dropped the proportion of Linux users rose even though the total users went down.
That's basically it. The part I don't understand is why Chinese would gravitate towards Windows while their government sees it as a US intelligence tool. I hear that most of them pirate it too.
Maybe the Steam Deck isn't readily available on the Chinese market.
Because a lot of them are into games that require anti-cheat and there are also a lot more internet cafes, so more windows.
There was a sudden unexplained jump in the number of simplified Chinese users counted in the previous survey, few of whom run linux apparently. It was probably some kind of error because their number has now gone back down. People expected it because that's not the first time it happened.
Could it be correlated to Chinese New Year? I could see a ton of people in China suddenly playing and then not playing if most people get time off at the same time.
Does it happen every year around this time?
Alternative perspective, it could be related to the Great Firewall of a China, perhaps they made some rule adjustments and data came through that doesn't normally come through.
They don't drop Chinese from the random sampling. The random sampling is back to normal averages.See here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/steam-tracker/#languagesanchor Also, English only Linux use is relatively the same based on the random sampling, see here: https://www.gamingonlinux.com/steam-tracker/#engsplitanchor