The latest Steam hardware survey cites Linux as accounting for over 5% of the install base. That’s not a lot, and comes with the caveat of Valve’s info gathering not being bulletproof, but it ia a good chunk higher than the OS’s mark for the first two months of 2026.

Taking a look at the March survey, it puts Linux at 5.33% of the install base, a jump of 3.10% from 2.23%, which it was at in the February survey. Though, Linux’s trajectory in these surveys isn’t a line that’s going straight up, with the January survey putting it at 3.38%. To trace the line back even further, December’s number was 3.58% and November’s was 3.20%.

So, these last two numbers look to be a slight break from the norm in both directions. Either way, Linux installs sit above Mac, but well below the ever-dominant Windows. The latter’s at 92.33% in this latest survey, split 66.85% to 25.36% between Windows 11 and Windows 10, with the overall number being down slightly from February’s 96.61% and January’s 94.62%. So, this latest number could turn out to be a sign of Linux starting to make more substantial inroads into that dominance, but I’d say it’s certainly not worth rushing to conclusions yet.

The different variants of Linux that make up March’s 5% are split pretty evenly, with Arch Linux – which the Steam Deck’s SteamOS is based on – leading the way at 0.34%, while Linux Mint 22.3 and Ubuntu Core 24 fill out the podium positions.

Time to ring your mates who run Mint and Ubuntu to laugh down the phone and remind them who the real one taking the fight to Microsoft’s hegemony is. Then apologise and ask them if they’d be up for a few rounds of whichever multiplayer thing’s eating up your lives at present.