[Crito]

For what definition of "users" and "run"?

I signed up for Steam and installed it on linux, downloaded TF2 only to find that it would not work with Wheezy/my integrated Intel GPU (I didn't investigate beyond some "you don't support GLX_WHATEVER message, it could have been either), then deleted the installation and haven't done anything with it since.

I presumably am not counted in this statistic since I did not do that within the past month, but I wonder how many other people like that are.

[Danieru]

Every month Steam asks a random subset of Steam users a hardware survey.

OS choice is a new aspect of the survey. The survey's original intention was to find things like 64bit penetration, number of cores, monitor resolution, internet connection type, and power of GPU. Most of it is automated.

We don't know Valve's exact methodology. I would hope they take a random sample of users who logged in the prior month and send them the survey. If you get selected a window will popup and ask you for permission to run the survey. If you say yes then it gathers your system data. They should only count you as a linux user if you were on linux when you took the survey.

This still leaves room for Valve to cheat in the selection process but otherwise the survey should be meaningful.

[jordonwii]

I had the same issue. If I recall correctly, there is a relatively simple solution on the Ubuntu forums somewhere.

[codygman]

The solution isn't so simple on wheezy if you want to keep your install sane. AKA don't install debs from ubuntu/other repos.

When I last checked, what was necessary is backporting a new verison of libgl1-mesa and possibly other things. Haven't had time to see if that fixes it yet though.

[nitrogen]

This is one area where Linux in general, and Debian in specific, isn't currently very gamer friendly -- graphics drivers languish at out of date versions for far too long.

[recursive]

Oh well, maybe 2015 will be the year of linux on the desktop.

[jebblue]

For me and my wife and me for work it was 2007.

[jebblue]

Gamers tend to use dedicated cards.

[Crito]

Aye, I understand that and wasn't expecting much.

FWIW: I just decided to give it another shot and Half-Life seems to work great, surprisingly at 2560x1700.