Valve have released the Steam Hardware & Software Survey for March 2025, and as expected with the Simplified Chinese language dropping the Linux stats have shot back up.
If you do install Linux (I highly recommend) just know that in Steam, if you buy a game and your library page says “This game is not supported” and the install button is disabled, you just need to right-click on the game (in the left panel), go to Properties -> Compatibility, and set it to Proton Experimental (you can also play around with specific versions of Proton). 99% of my games work flawlessly (n.b. I don’t play competitive online multiplayer any more, it’s too sweaty and time-consuming for me these days). In fact I can’t think of anything that didn’t work. But check ProtonDB real quick before buying (although you can always refund if it doesn’t run).
you just need to right-click on the game (in the left panel), go to Properties -> Compatibility, and set it to Proton Experimental
You can also enable it for all available games from Settings > Compatibility (and you’ll still be able to override the version on a per-game basis as well)
If you do install Linux (I highly recommend) just know that in Steam, if you buy a game and your library page says “This game is not supported” and the install button is disabled, you just need to right-click on the game (in the left panel), go to Properties -> Compatibility, and set it to Proton Experimental (you can also play around with specific versions of Proton). 99% of my games work flawlessly (n.b. I don’t play competitive online multiplayer any more, it’s too sweaty and time-consuming for me these days). In fact I can’t think of anything that didn’t work. But check ProtonDB real quick before buying (although you can always refund if it doesn’t run).
You can also enable it for all available games from Settings > Compatibility (and you’ll still be able to override the version on a per-game basis as well)
The trade-off of Linux vs. Windows means if your game doesn’t run on Linux I won’t buy it.