The hardware survey will appear at random to users. Since the hwsurvey page has ~2% of users on Linux, they must be seeing the survey no?

Two things:
The Linux user count plummeted from the last month.
Never had this problem on the windows version throughout the year 2012 - the survey scraped me every month, if my memory serves right.

I have seen the hardware survey come up on my Linux Steam. It does seem it chooses randomly, and does not pull everyone all the time.

I have installed steam on linux about 20 or so times, just because I am always installing new distros and I have only seen the survey pop up on me one time. So that kinda gives you an idea of how rare it is.

I have not seen the survey at all on Linux. Is there a reason why it does not just upload the information every time you log in?

I haven't seen it ever, too, except on Windows, where it pops up every time. This randomness sounds weird to me.

Another weird thing - I have several scratch-monkey / alternative steam accounts. I did not have the HW survey pop up on the Linux version with any of them. Yet, if I log in on Windows, it always pops up on all of them.

I had the hwsurvey only once, in December 2012. I never used steam on windows, except one or two times with wine. So I have no idea how often it happens on win.

In April I used Steam on Linux almost everyday and never got the survey. I ran Steam on Windows about 7 times and I got the survey about 5 times.
I used Gentoo amd64 with and without the Steam runtime enabled.

I have never seen it on Linux. I've been asked in Wine but never on Linux (btw. I'm almost non-stop on the native Steam Linux client. Usually once at a month on the Windows client in Wine. it must be a bug).

I think I’ve only gotten it once while being on Linux and in the years I've been using Steam I think it's asked me a total of 3-4 times. It's far too little to be accurate.

I can confirm I have never seen the survey on Linux, but when I installed Steam on Windows, it popped up immediately.

I've received the survey once since december last year. In between that time, I've changed from 12.04 to 12.10 and finally to 13.04. Even installing Steam for Linux on other Ubuntu machines, I don't get the survey. Yet, when opening the Windows version of Steam in Wine, I get it every month without fail thus far.

I've used the native Linux client since the beta and never once seen the survey on Linux.

In my 3+ years of using Steam I've only ever had the survey come up once in Windows and so far not at all in Linux.

It's supposed to be a random sample across all Steam users. If there is a bug here, I'd be more concerned that it might be certain users being oversampled.

I never once seen the survey on Linux.

I've never seen the survey in Linux, ever. I loaded Steam in Wine a single time, and BAM - survey.

I've seen it only once on Windows, I believe. Never on Linux.

Another month passed and the linux share is even lower than in May. I didn't get survey once on linux version and when I've started Steam in Wine it popped up immediately. Something is very wrong here. Any comments from Valve?

OP here,
I still did not get the HW survey on Linux this year yet. Meanwhile, it keeps popping up when I run on Wine or Windows. Definitely doesn't seem right.

I don't think I've ever seen the survey in the years I've been playing games on Steam (I think since 2004). Maybe I'm just unlucky, but it seems like there may be a problem. I've been using it on Linux exclusively since the Linux beta began.

Same thing for me, my Windows version of steam asked me to complete the survey 3 times in the last week, I finally cave in and did it today, but the previous times I just closed the dialog and hoped it would ask me while I was playing on Linux. And I do spend a lot more time on Linux with my Steam always running (though it is Arch Linux and not Ubuntu).

So it really looks to me like the survey has a big flaw or bug because otherwise it sure looks like it's biased toward Windows.

Please fix this.

Never see it on Linux, though it pops on Windows when I occasionally log into it for games not ported yet.

While running Steam using wine, i saw it very often, but with the native linux client, i have yet to see it. Something is not right.

To all those who see the survey "lots", "every time", etc on Windows and/or WINE:

Did you actually fill out the survey?

If so, did it continue to ask you to fill out the survey after that point?

I've been using Steam on a regular basis for 3.5 years and have only ever got the survey twice. Once for Windows, and once (a couple of weeks ago) on Linux.

The survey is NOT supposed to show up lots and definitely not every single time - it's supposed to be a random sample across all Steam installs and should be EXTREMELY RARE for any Steam user to actually see it when they open their client.

Those who haven't seen the survey on Linux or have only seen it once: That's what is supposed to happen, it is not a bug!
Those who keep seeing the survey on Windows and/or WINE: If you actually filled out the survey and it keeps showing up, then THIS is the actual problem here.

it's supposed to be a random sample across all Steam installs and should be EXTREMELY RARE for any Steam user to actually see it when they open their client.

I thought it was supposed to sample every steam user over the course of a year (so 1/12th of the active player base per month)? Or has that changed?

I thought it was supposed to sample every steam user over the course of a year (so 1/12th of the active player base per month)? Or has that changed?

Only a Valve developer can answer that question for sure - as far as I am aware there is currently NO official word on this. It is listed as one of the "gathered/assumed fact" in some random thread (search steam survey FAQ), however that section starts with this disclaimer:

I have not been able to find any "official" confirmation for many of the statements below

Personally but I'd be surprised if that was ever the case - The first time I ever saw the survey in Windows was earlier this year, over 3 years after joining Steam.

Also, I would seriously question whether the survey selects users at random - I suspect it selects Steam installs at random.

Personally but I'd be surprised if that was ever the case - The first time I ever saw the survey in Windows was
earlier this year, over 3 years after joining Steam.

There was a bug in Steam a long time ago which make steam not to prompt the users on after a certain condition was triggered. IIRC it was something Win7 related, but I am not sure. Because of that bug, many users never got the survey prompt or got it only once. When it was fixed, users got the prompt en masse, and many - for the first time. (I got the survey prompt for the first time after that bug was fixed.)
Thus, I've got a feeling this current situation and that older bug might be related...

Okay again within the last 3 days it must have flagged me, I was logged into Steam on Linux and nothing, rebooted and into Windows and it pops up so i log back into Linux, nothing.

Something is up, I know it doesn't survey everyone but I was obviously flagged for it and it didn't show up in Linux, it never has for me.

I don't see why Valve aren't looking into this or giving us some kind of reassurance themselves since they want it to succeed on Linux do they not?

Maybe they haven't figured out how to fix it. I would like a response that they are addressing it though.

I would like a response that they are addressing it though.

Being marked with "reviewed" tag means they are are addressing it. And since Steam is a closed platform, that is all they are going to tell us mare mortals. ...unless something spectacular would happen and they would require some sort of input from us.

Same here no survey in 6 months of using steam on Linux on a regular basis, installed on three machines, and two different distros.

This month I finally got the survey on Steam for Linux.
But I'm not sure it was counted because of connection problems. :-|

Three weeks ago I bought a new laptop and guess what happened.
I finally saw the survery on native Linux Steam.
It probably needs a complete hardware change?

It's not fair then. People switch the OSes but it has no impact on the survey results.

I agree. The Linux survey is too rare. Back then when i was using wine, I saw the survey every month. With Linux, i have yet to witness its existence. Perhaps Valve's system still thinks I'm a windows (wine) user.

I think it would be better to allow users to post public or private system information on the Steam Community. This way you can share your PC specs with friends and it would be more easy and reliable to build statistics.

It could be disabled by default and users would be allowed to enable it only if they bought at least one game to avoid stats spamming with empty accounts. It could also only use active users for the statistics. Users that played X hours in the last Y months.

Steam could also recommend games based on your gaming setup or even in the future, provide integration with benchmark tools that are already sold on Steam ex: Share bench result or use benchmark results in the stats.

I am using Steam for Linux since the second Beta wave and never got the survey, using Wine I got it a lot of times.

I have never ever have this survey on Linux, but.. even that I'm not very often on Windows - since Steam got officially released to Linux I've seen it 3 or 4 times on it, but never on Linux..

There is one thing i noticed. Once you get the prompt asking if you want to be part of the survey, if you do not answer and close Steam, the next time you will use it, it will ask again. It will always continue until you answer instead of closing the window. But even if it showed every single time on windows, i never saw it on linux. Tried different VM, with XP, Vista and Win7, they all asked me to take the survey, so it is not in the Steam files.

Why i never saw it on my linux system ???

The survey popped up on my main desktop with the native client this morning.

Just got the survey for the first time on Linux yesterday.

I still would not mind having an option to tick which just automatically collected the main stats from each computer once a month.

It should always a least pop up on the first time changing system or platform.

I got my survey last night. Seems to be working fine to me. Is it possible that someone here just "feels" that it isn't working due to the random chance that they weren't surveyed? Not everyone get surveyed each month, just a small portion of the overall population.

@dh04000 please read the thread carefully. People said that they immediately got the survey in windows version of Steam on Wine, canceled it, started linux version and got nothing. Then they started Wine version again and the survey was there. May be they really spread it between unique installations or per machine ID and not between usernames. I'm glad it's probably not a bug since now it pops up on linux but I'm yet to see it here.

@rkfg Oh, I see, I misunderstood. This doesn't seem like a bug then. If they didn't want to be counted as a Wine user, then they should have been using steam on Linux/Mac instead. Its random, so the more you use one platform, the more likely you will be picked as part of the sample on that platform. Statistics.

@dh04000 I rarely use Wine these days because most of games I usually play are already ported or are being created for linux anyway. It's like 99% of the time I run the native version and once in a while try something in Wine. The problem is that nevertheless the survey always (for me, at least) appears only on the Wine version. Well, now we know it's rather a feature, not a bug. Probably.

I also reported problems in this thread and I also received Steam survey this month. I wonder whether it is accidental, or whether it is a bug fixed. There are now 4 people reporting a survey appearance since October started.

Deleting/moving ~/.steam every month seems to be the only way to get it here after 10 months of messing with it on the same install. It gives a survey every time once a month..

Started Steam for the first time this month and the survey popped up. Now we are 5 users who have it this month for the first time. I wonder if the linux users will rise up next month... Anyway, IF this is caused by a bugfix it looks weird, too.

@V10lator The surge in people saying that they got it for the first time maybe the fact that people from Phoronix.com found this link.... they're so into conspiracy theories that they were posting that this "bug" was a valve attempt at discrediting linux and that they had to spam this thread until valve learns they are serious. So, these are most likely false positives.....

@dh04000 not sure what You mean about the Phoronix.com thing

also, 5 people getting it is surely not "it's OK now". If absolutely nobody got it on Linux, the current user count would be down to 0.0% in the Steam usage stats. Thus, some people getting it is still expected.
If this is really a bug after all, it would explain why Linux user count in the Steam usage stats is dropping constantly. sigh
P.S. I still didn't manage to get it on Linux this year. And I launch the Steam Linux client ~ once a day on average.

bump for never seeing it under linux.

i haven't used windows in 16 years. i've been in steam for linux since beta. i've been asked once, ever.

Same here. I remember getting it a lot 4 years ago on Windows. Not once on Linux since it launched.

It showed up for the first time since I installed Linux version of Steam (which was back when it was in beta) and it detected and submitted all the info correctly, so it really seams to be working for now, will have to wait and see if it comes back as frequently has it does on Windows in the future.

Likely just the result of randomness, seen it twice on Linux now, once on twins Win7 box (giving them my family sharing permission) and once under wine…

Hasn't showed up for me since I installed Steam on Ubuntu 12.04 x64 (somewhere around December 2012)

Has shown up to me 2 times since Steam for Linux Beta, in january and may. When I play in Windows however it shows up -every month-.

Why not show up on -all- accounts every month? Or would that cause too much traffic?

Everytime i install steam on windows i get asket for an survey, on linux i was never asked.

@TachyonSpace it’s random :^)

Just reinstalled steam yesterday. Never got the survey on Linux before, but this time I got it immediately after installation.

Today (1st December) i got the steam survey on linux for the first time.

I think there is some check to avoid duplicated entries. IIRC when I received the survey on both PC and Mac and I filled it out on my Mac I stopped receiving it on my PC. When I received the survey on 2 accounts on the same installation I stopped receiving it on both accounts after I filled out the survey with one.
Perhaps is there some check that interferes? I have 5 Steam installations on 2 computers with 2 accounts and I've seen the survey much less than when I had just 1 installation with 1 account.
Since most Linux users have other systems and many could have a WINE installation this could explain why we feel we receive the survey less frequently.

I received the survey when Steam for Linux first became available, didn't see it for a long time except once when I ran Steam under Wine, then finally received another survey this month. I would suspect that it's just that the sampling means that some people don't see the survey very often and other people see it all the time.

I have seen a lot of speculation and confusion about this topic. This is my own conclusions from a tiny bit of testing.

The survey is remembering the date you last filled it in for each steam install (file location), not per user or machine. It displays again if you haven't submitted it in the last 12 months. For new installs the date is initialized to 9 months back (only tried once, had just filled in survey on main machine then installed a new wine prefix and logged in with a account to initialize it).

Knowing that the date doesn't get saved for that specific user, i can know happily tell steam not to ask again in all my wine prefixes (or for windows if that is installed for some reason) without the fear that it won't show up on my main machine.

If they are trying to figure out linux usage it seems weird to "randomly" pick steam users to survey - makes me think any variation we see in linux numbers at all is simply due to the nature of "random" numbers as they appear in coding. The actual linux usage might be somewhat higher, maybe 2-3 percent.

For one thing, I dual-boot between Win7 and Arch - and time and time again I get Hardware Survey if I'm on Windows and not if I'm on Linux (which is more often). Once after the survey prompt on Windows I even rebooted into Linux to accurately complete the survey, given my main OS of choice. Sadly the survey just didn't come up on Linux at all, not once, while I see it on Windows constantly. And I only use one account.

after more than 2 years i still havent got it on Linux at all.

I've participated in the survey on Linux a couple of times since my last message. It's weird that Valve don't send it to everyone but rather a random subset of installations. But lose no faith! I've got it and so can you, just wait and see.

@rkfg It's not about not getting it at all, it's about the fact that you get it almost never on linux but instantly on wine / in a VM.

@V10lator if I'm reading the title right it's exactly about not getting it on Linux at all which is not true. Getting it less often on Linux is another issue and may be related to mere statistics. For example, Valve may sample 10% of each platform extrapolating it afterwards and you have more chances to be included in the sample on Windows than on Linux. Simply because Windows has tenfold more users and 10% from it is a much bigger number than 10% from the Linux population. So your chances are bigger if you're on Windows. I may be wrong of course, that's just what I think.

grep SurveyDate ~/.local/share/Steam/config/config.vdf

If you cancel it you will get it again every month, as OP says. Read previous posts in the thread for more clues.

@rkfg The title seems out of date but still many Linux users which are there since day one and use steam4linux exclusively have never ever got the survey. Also if you want to do the following test: Take 20 VMs. Install on 10 of them Windows, on the other 10 Linux. Then install steam in each of them. Log in... I bet you'll get surveys instantly on every windows install but not a single one on Linux.

@V10lator I don't have that many Windows licenses (actually, I have zero of them) so no testing, sorry. I'm interested in the results though, so anybody with a KMS license is appreciated to prove this theory.

You can install Windows without a licence for up to 90 days. Microsoft even provide some such VMs: http://dev.modern.ie/tools/vms/windows/

Nice feature, didn't know about it. I'll give it a try but I don't promise anything.

Dudes, last month I had 5 requests for steam survey on my win-pc, while using the same steam-account I don't get even one request on my Linux Mint Steam for the last full year.

On average I use Linux 75% of the time & Windows 25% yet I am more often selected for the survey while using Windows.
Today I finally got the survey on Linux after having gone about 6 months of only receiving it on Windows. During those 6 months I used Windows probably about 20 days and I did most of my gaming on Linux.
If I continue to see the survey pop up on Linux, I'll report back.

I've got asked today 3 times for survey in steam for windows.
Still not even once in Linux.
Maybe it's because of my distro (Mint 17.3)?

OP here, I got the survey prompt on my Linux client again last month. That is more than than four years since I originally got (last time was December 2012). I reinstalled my computer due to changing distros several times since, I should note. Yet It did pop up on Windows client several times on those rare occasions I'd run it through Wine...
It just feels very odd.
Oh, and I still haven't got it on the Linux client on my second account, which I run it my laptop, ever. Yet the same story as before when I popped onto Wine... welp.

They don't sample every client, just the fraction of them. Suppose they show the survey on each 1000th client. For Windows it's quite a lot so you're more likely to be among them, for Linux not so much. You may delete ClientRegistry.blob (or something like that), I heard after that you'll get the survey instantly.

The observed behavior I have seen is that there is a separate, higher rng chance for long time inactive clients compared to regularly used clients. This is something I've been noticing over several years with about half a dozen steam in wine prefixes and the native steam client, some which are used semi-regularly, others are rarely used.

'Long' in this context is most likely long enough for automatic login credentials to be invalidated.

I finally got a survey on Linux, after almost 3 years since last time it happened.
In my case the frequency of surveys under Linux is much lower than what I got when using OSX or Windows, in the past.
This time I enabled the steam runtime which I usually keep disabled, I don't know if that could interfere with the survey.

Still not seeing any indication of the hardware survey on my machine. If memory serves me correct, I saw it maybe twice last year and that was early 2015. And that was when I was running Debian Wheezy. Currently running Devuan Jessie. Prior to 2015, I don't remember seeing the survey all that often also.

In 2014 when I dual booted, the survey would always load up when I booted into the Steam for Windows client but not on the Linux client, even when I had started the Linux client a few times prior to booting into Windows.

I think. valves think that users have linux sucks, and the survey demonstrate that have more than 3% of market, and is no convenience for valve and no show the survey, valve make something for the survey, you know that you have more than 3% demonstrate with the survey, only i make 1 survey from steam beta in 2013, is something rarely? i dont think that is a bug

Linux Mint 18
Date: 30. Sep. 2016
I've got a survey request!
:+1:

This have been my first for the last years, using Linux.
@jomarocas ...
If you use parallel windows and get there a survey, reboot into Linux and you will get the survey there. (Worked for me)

hi @Translator5 But i need to stay open the survey while reboot? or close the survey and reboot and appear the survey? thanks

This still happens. I had no survey on Linux for years, log into Steam for Windows, installed via Wine, and the same moment I log, here's the survey. No wonder the Linux market share is consistently falling down...

Explain this, because I have no other explanation that it is done on purpose.

I also do not see hardwere survey on Linux. I do not remember if I ever saw it on Linux.
I am running Steam nearly each day.

I got the survey yesterday on ArchLinux.
I think that's third time I got it on Linux, and on Windows (wchich I
rarely use) I got it like 10 times.
It's really weird how it chooses it.
It might be that it tries to get 20% of each platform, so 20% of Windows
steam users will be a ton more than Linux, and also users
which participated in previous surveys will get it more often.
Also I have a lot devices nowadays on which I also have steam installed (as
I use it as communicator)

On Mon, Mar 6, 2017 at 11:13 PM, ZeXx86 [email protected] wrote:

I also do not see hardwere survey on Linux. I do not remember if I ever
saw it on Linux.
I am running Steam nearly each day.

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I don't understand why they don't just give the survey to everyone (with an
option to opt-out of any future ones), I'll never believe they don't have
the capacity for it.

On Mon, Mar 6, 2017 at 10:27 PM, Herbb [email protected] wrote:

I got the survey yesterday on ArchLinux.
I think that's third time I got it on Linux, and on Windows (wchich I
rarely use) I got it like 10 times.
It's really weird how it chooses it.
It might be that it tries to get 20% of each platform, so 20% of Windows
steam users will be a ton more than Linux, and also users
which participated in previous surveys will get it more often.
Also I have a lot devices nowadays on which I also have steam installed (as
I use it as communicator)

On Mon, Mar 6, 2017 at 11:13 PM, ZeXx86 [email protected] wrote:

I also do not see hardwere survey on Linux. I do not remember if I ever
saw it on Linux.
I am running Steam nearly each day.

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I don't know if it's significant, but I finally got the survey again (since my original installation) last night after I upgraded my RAM.

I finally got the steam survey on my linux laptop not long ago.
But at this point, I still got an order of magnitude less survey prompt on Linux compared to Windows (3 times on Linux versus some double digits on Windows), despite the fact I run Windows an order of magnitude less often than Linux (end up booting to windows once every 1-3 months; getting the prompt basically every single time).

How you got the steam survey, only for me appear one time

@jomarocas that's what we're trying to figure out. I only got it twice on my PC over four years of time and only once on my laptop over three years of time.
i.e. we have no idea.

Start by checking the last time you filled it in for that steam installation, grep SurveyDate ~/.local/share/Steam/config/config.vdf I think it appears around 12 months after that (might be randomized).

If you just skip it, then it will not change the date and it appears again and again.

Also, you can trigger the survey by editing the SurveyDate.

I've been gaming under Ubuntu using Steam for Linux-based operating systems and over multiple computers, I've seen the Hardware Survey only two or three times... The rest of my family (wife, son and daughter) have never seen it under their respective Steam accounts - ever.

Add to this the fact that this bug has been reported over and over, whilst still not being addressed and it immediately becomes clear that Valve Software obviously have no intention of fixing this bug or adjusting the Hardware Survey so that it more accurately collects data...

In other words, don't hold your breath for a fix or a change to data collection in the foreseeable future, because it won't happen.

The hardware survey is working as intended on Linux and the numbers we get are in line with real user counts, with some over-reporting due to the sampling method used (real user count is lower).

I do not believe that your survey is accurate. Since I have Steam installed, and running 90% of the time... and because my computer is on 24/7, I only received an invitation to complete the survey once in about 3 years. I actually completed the survey twice, so far, because I copy+pasted the link once (last January).

I find it ridiculous that, on one hand Steam Machines and SteamOS are not doing well, and on the other hand Steam is not doing much to show the real amount of people playing on Linux. It does not make any sense.

Vulkan is coming out, most game engine do support Linux, and Windows 10 S is a mess. How is it that Steam does not seize this opportunity??

Hi @yanickrochon In this time only one time i have the survey, i stay from the beta software and only one time, please can you provide de link, thanks

@jomarocas check out here : https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/620712364040236034/

No way it's accurate. Can say I've only had the hardware survey once in at least three years despite using it daily... before the patches in June. The results of that survey have always been amusing to read.

The OS and most hardware can be determined automatically, why relying on user input? Why not simply compile them using user online stats? Many Linux users are dual booting and probably fill out the survey in Windows, despite using Linux; why not logging user stats and use that in the hardware & software survey? I mean, have users confirm their hardware change and simply use that every months... and have them update if Steam detect different info.

Start by checking the last time you filled it in for that steam installation, grep SurveyDate ~/.local/share/Steam/config/config.vdf I think it appears around 12 months after that (might be randomized).

Hmmm, according to SurveryDate I had one in april this year, yet this steam machine has never ever asked me anything, I would have known 8-D.

@ardje my take is that the survey failed (i.e. was not shown nor sent), but was marked as completed.

In any case, this issue was closed without a solution.

According to SurveyDate, I also had one in April this year, though in reality, I never got one.

Is a bug need to be reopen

Some more discussions on the survey on Linux:

• reddit - Do you get any Steam hardware surveys
• reddit - Help Linux get some exposure by manually taking the Steam hardware survey
• GamingOnLinux - How big is Linux gaming? Some estimates

As I mentioned several times already, Steam is open and running 24/7 on this computer (that is on 24/7) and I apparently last received a survey on August 21st 2016 (almost a year ago). This is most likely the only time that I ever received it. As I also mentioned, I have filled the survey manually last winter (can't remember exactly when). And, no, I am not a beta participant.

I also noticeably receive the survey prompt on Linux much less frequently than on Wine or back when I used Windows. I don't think I've ever received the survey more than twice in a year on the Linux client, and I've used it on several different Linux installs since the very beginning in 2012.

The last time I received the survey on Linux was 2017-02-02 (8 months).
The last time I received it on each of my current Steam Wine prefixes, which I run roughly every two weeks or so on average: 2016-11-09 (11 months), 2017-07-13 (2 months before last run), 2017-09-08 (last run)
From a 2015-12-05 backup of the Linux client data, the last survey was 2015-04-09 (8 months).

One suspicion I've had was that it could have something to do with how infrequently I launch the Linux client vs. Wine/Windows. Unlike as it was with Windows, I almost never have to reboot and on some occasions leave the Linux client running for weeks if not months, usually only closing it to temporarily switch to Steam in Wine.

The hardware survey is working as intended on Linux and the numbers we get are in line with real user counts, with some over-reporting due to the sampling method used (real user count is lower).

I'm not convinced. Can you show us the real user counts you're talking about? How are they collected and what is the extent of the collected data? Even a 0.01% difference can mean a lot to us. I have yet to hear a Linux user say that they receive the survey at least as often as they do in Windows or Wine, let alone regularly at all.

If Steam already reports system info for all users in the background, why not use that instead of the "random" survey method which is bound to have inaccuracies, especially if the sampling method could potentially discriminate against certain users such as those who leave the client running for very long periods?
Alternatively, add an opt-in or (ideally) opt-out option to automatically report the survey every month.

Also, as a side-note, I believe the Windows client running in Wine should report as the host OS or WINE rather than Windows. It's already clear in system information that Steam can see that it's running in Wine, but that detail isn't shown anywhere in the survey results. Wine would be an obvious source of skewed survey data, though I personally don't submit them for that reason.

How did you close this? Last time i saw Steam Survey on my machine was 1.5 years ago.

It is not normal.

How did you close this? Last time i saw Steam Survey on my machine was 1.5 years ago. It is not normal.

Because it is easier to ignore the bug and pretend it doesn't exist, than it is to address the bug and admit that you have a poor and/or faulty system in place... I guess that's what happens when your company get too big - the developers get lazy.

I think it is.

I installed Win10 to test this and i immediately prompted by survey. I closed it of course. And deleted Win partition.

Then installed Steam Windows via Wine and guess what? Got prompted again.

1.5 years without a survey on single boot Linux machine , then got 2 of it on Windows and Wine.

Either they don't want to fix this intentionally or they can't simply fix this.

Even Vulkan Gpu survey is some kind of broken , Dx12 , Dx11 are on there all the time but Vulkan one appears from time to time. 3 months cycles afaik.

I upgraded my computer not long after my comment in June 2017 above - I'm still yet to have a survey on this computer (i.e. nearly a year later), despite restarting daily and restarting Steam at least once a day. My kids and wife have still never seen it under their respective Steam accounts when using Linux... My son however, has seen it a couple of times under Steam for macOS - and he only got his Apple computer for Christmas!

And the Valve developers are trying to say it's not a bug?

Pffft, gimme a break - that's doing the "monkey thing", but putting your fingers in your ears and saying "If I cant hear you, it's not a problem!"

You know there's something wrong if Windows XP 32-bit has as much increase then Linux overall. This is laughable.

I'm not a fanatic gamer, but I've steam on my Linux systems for many years, and I confirm that I've never seen the hardware survey. So I think closing this issue is does not reflect the suggestion that this issue is fixed.

I have Steam for Linux launched daily from the time of the first beta versions. And I can confirm I have never seen this survay as well, while with Steam under Wine it showed immediately after installation and few times later.

"The hardware survey is working as intended on Linux".

I've been thinking about it, and maybe Valve Software are right - this is not a bug.

The Hardware Survey is clearly intended to only show on Linux-based operating systems rarely... So this is obviously not a bug - it's a design flaw, very likely an intentional one too, given the attitude of Valve Software and its developers towards this design flaw.

This is not a bug , it is a feature.

                                          -Plagman

It's not a "feature" if it is deliberately taking something away from its users... It would need to add value to be considered a "feature".

Clearly this does not add value to users of Linux-based operating systems... Therefore, it is obviously a design flaw.

I think people wrongly assume that without the survey they're not being counted. Why do you think so? Steam definitely knows which platform it's running on, the survey only covers things that can't be detected automatically like if you have a mic or a Steam Link. If Valve is not interested in these things on each PC you can never see a survey. Most likely they sample some machines and extrapolate the results. And since it's a random process, surely there would be people who never got a survey. Clearing the registry file makes it appear instantly or so I read. But that's not the point, you've already been counted as a Linux user, no matter the survey.

@rfkg

You're wrong. If it already counts each system without survey , why OS usage statics , gpu statics , installed ram etc. listed on Steam Hardware Survey page? Why they even call it as " Survey " then?

Because if Valve would do that ( collecting data without survey ), that would be data collection without consent.

I don't doubt that Valve Software secretly collects data regarding the machines on which it runs... But officially, the Hardware Survey is the only way such statistics are collected and thus it is the only source from which platform statistics are sourced (at least publicly).

Furthermore, because the data is readily available to developers, inaccurate statistics mislead developers by leading them to believe that there are less Linux gamers than there realistically are.

Why they even call it as " Survey " then?

I dunno, historical reasons maybe? I don't think anyone would design a system that allows to skew representations because some users don't want to participate. And the survey also doesn't pop up on Windows each month, AFAIK, so it surely extrapolates data. Then if even one user doesn't want to participate the whole OS share would fluctuate for quite a bit, and considering the Windows majority being overall less tech savvy or caring about their share, I think they skip the survey much more often than we, Linux users, do. But their share isn't going anywhere lower.

Waay back when I used to use Microsoft Windows-based operating systems, I would see the survey once a month and whilst I haven't used a Windows-based operating system in many years now, there are countless users which claim this is still the case...

Well, still it doesn't prove that without the survey your system is not counted. Anyway, Valve knows better. If the survey wouldn't report the real numbers they would surely fix it. It's not in their best interests to underrepresent Linux.

When i was a Windows only guy , 3 years ago i was prompting with survey at least every 3 months. I'm on only Linux for three years and only time i saw a survey was 1.5 years ago. Do the math.

When i was still on Windows , i would see survey at least 12 times ; let's say 10 for the sake of it. While on Linux i saw only once.

I also did an experiment with Windows 10 and Wine lately and immediately prompted for survey.

So yes , Steam Survey is not working on Linux. Just like it did with different locales , password and username storage issues etc.

Sure , they're saying Windows first as much of users are on there. But lately i'm seeing much more " We gave you Steam , so be happy with it peasants. This is not a bug and we don't care. "

*Second paragraph : Change when with if.

I was able to force it to appear by typing the following command in the terminal:

steam steam://takesurvey/1/ 

This is basically the same done here but for Linux.

It stays in the "Sending gathered data..." phase for a very long time, and I'm not sure it ever finishes sending. This issue was noted in #5550

This did not work for me, and all I saw was "Sending gathered data..." and it froze there.
I haven't seen the survey for many... many months now. No wonder why there are so many Windows uses! Linux users can't answer the damn thing!

In their defense, this seems to be freezing in windows as well.

Today, for the first time ever, the survey appeared on my Fedora Linux system.

It didn't for me

I just got it yesterday for the first time in a long time.

I got the survey today. Last recorded SurveyDate was 2019-02-04, almost one year ago.
When I was using Windows and MacOSX I remember it happened more frequently, almost every month (in one or the other, I was using both frequently years ago)

Mine says "2019-03-01", but no survey appeared in this date.

It has already been established that this works as intended; not everyone is supposed to get the survey. It seems kind of like a lottery, and I'm not sure how useful it is all in all (here's a nice, if a bit dated article about the survey in general: https://cheesetalks.net/steamsurvey.php).

I feel like I've been invited to participate somewhat often actually, both via the native Linux client and Windows client running via Wine (unfortunately I've not kept count nor recorded the dates). I would like having that luck in a real lottery. :]

Rather than commenting to this already closed issue, starting a new one (as a feature request, requesting for some sort of changes) might be a better idea, although I suspect there might already be a few of those around (taking into consideration venues outside of the Linux issue tracker as well).

I have been using the Linux steam client exclusively on Linux since it came out, I have never been offered a steam survey!

I got the survey 1 year after the last time as usual (when starting steam), after completing it the SurveyDate was reset to today.

todays date, config before, and after completing survey:

So how many Linux gamers are there, really?? :(

I haven't gotten the survey in a while.

SurveyDate"		"2017-12-23"
SurveyDateVersion"		"-2471878281309904000"
SurveyDateType"		"3"

Something is kind of fake about my last survey entry:
Last time I recieved a survey, was actually somewhere about ~ 2019. But on a old device.
On this, new device, bought in 2021, I've never received any survey ... but still entry says "yes"

"SurveyDate" "2017-08-25"
"SurveyDateVersion" "1474378756174933120"
"SurveyDateType" "3"

Just tried to force up a survey, it did not appear!

steam steam://takesurvey/1/ 
steam.sh[47285]: Running Steam on manjarolinux 23.0.0 64-bit
steam.sh[47285]: STEAM_RUNTIME is enabled automatically
setup.sh[47359]: Steam runtime environment up-to-date!
steam.sh[47285]: Steam client's requirements are satisfied
[2023-07-04 16:41:24] Startup - updater built Jun 21 2023 21:17:38
[2023-07-04 16:41:24] Startup - Steam Client launched with: '/home/rt5/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam' 'steam://takesurvey/1/'
07/04 16:41:24 Init: Installing breakpad exception handler for appid(steam)/version(1687386907)/tid(47450)
[2023-07-04 16:41:24] Loading cached metrics from disk (/home/rt5/.local/share/Steam/package/steam_client_metrics.bin)
[2023-07-04 16:41:24] Using the following download hosts for Public, Realm steamglobal
[2023-07-04 16:41:24] 1. https://client-update.akamai.steamstatic.com, /, Realm 'steamglobal', weight was 1000, source = 'update_hosts_cached.vdf'
[2023-07-04 16:41:24] 2. https://cdn.cloudflare.steamstatic.com, /client/, Realm 'steamglobal', weight was 1, source = 'update_hosts_cached.vdf'
[2023-07-04 16:41:24] 3. http://media.steampowered.com, /client/, Realm 'steamglobal', weight was 1, source = 'baked in'
[2023-07-04 16:41:24] Installation wird überprüft …
[2023-07-04 16:41:24] Verification complete

(process:47450): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: 16:41:24.482: g_object_ref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

(process:47450): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: 16:41:24.482: g_object_unref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
XRRGetOutputInfo Workaround: initialized with override: 0 real: 0xe8356db0
XRRGetCrtcInfo Workaround: initialized with override: 0 real: 0xe8355500
GetWin32Stats: display was not open yet, good
Loaded SDL version 3.0.0-1782-g214d5daa3
GetWin32Stats: display was not open yet, good
ComputeStartupMode: found registry default startup mode: 0
Switching to desktopui, since -vgui was not specified
steamwebhelper.sh[47471]: Runtime for steamwebhelper: defaulting to /home/rt5/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_64/steam-runtime-heavy
steamwebhelper.sh[47471]: glibc >= 2.34, partially disabling sandbox until CEF supports clone3()
CAppInfoCacheReadFromDiskThread took 92 milliseconds to initialize
Failed to init SteamVR because it isn't installed

(steam:47450): Gtk-WARNING **: 16:41:25.500: gtk_disable_setlocale() must be called before gtk_init()

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:41:25.503: g_main_context_push_thread_default: assertion 'acquired_context' failed

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:41:25.503: g_main_context_pop_thread_default: assertion 'g_queue_peek_head (stack) == context' failed
local (potentially out of sync) copy of roaming config loaded - 7369 bytes.
[2023-07-04 16:41:26.417] [MANGOHUD] [info] [blacklist.cpp:59] process 'vulkandriverquery' is blacklisted in MangoHud
[2023-07-04 16:41:26.417] [MANGOHUD] [info] [blacklist.cpp:59] process 'vulkandriverquery' is blacklisted in MangoHud
[2023-07-04 16:41:26.420] [MANGOHUD] [info] [config.cpp:123] parsing config: '/home/rt5/.config/MangoHud/MangoHud.conf'
roaming config store loaded successfully - 7369 bytes.
migrating temporary roaming config store
BRefreshApplicationsInLibrary 1: 0ms

(steam:47450): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: 16:41:27.617: g_object_ref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed

(steam:47450): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: 16:41:27.617: g_object_unref: assertion 'G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
System startup time: 3.49 seconds
BuildCompleteAppOverviewChange: 664 apps
RegisterForAppOverview 1: 19ms
RegisterForAppOverview 2: 20ms
ExecCommandLine: "'/home/rt5/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam' 'steam://takesurvey/1/'"

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:41:35.540: g_main_context_push_thread_default: assertion 'acquired_context' failed

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:41:35.540: g_main_context_pop_thread_default: assertion 'g_queue_peek_head (stack) == context' failed

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:41:45.589: g_main_context_push_thread_default: assertion 'acquired_context' failed

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:41:45.589: g_main_context_pop_thread_default: assertion 'g_queue_peek_head (stack) == context' failed

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:41:55.631: g_main_context_push_thread_default: assertion 'acquired_context' failed

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:41:55.631: g_main_context_pop_thread_default: assertion 'g_queue_peek_head (stack) == context' failed

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:42:05.678: g_main_context_push_thread_default: assertion 'acquired_context' failed

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:42:05.678: g_main_context_pop_thread_default: assertion 'g_queue_peek_head (stack) == context' failed

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:42:15.724: g_main_context_push_thread_default: assertion 'acquired_context' failed

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:42:15.725: g_main_context_pop_thread_default: assertion 'g_queue_peek_head (stack) == context' failed

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:42:25.772: g_main_context_push_thread_default: assertion 'acquired_context' failed

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:42:25.772: g_main_context_pop_thread_default: assertion 'g_queue_peek_head (stack) == context' failed

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:42:35.772: g_main_context_push_thread_default: assertion 'acquired_context' failed

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:42:35.773: g_main_context_pop_thread_default: assertion 'g_queue_peek_head (stack) == context' failed

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:42:45.821: g_main_context_push_thread_default: assertion 'acquired_context' failed

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:42:45.821: g_main_context_pop_thread_default: assertion 'g_queue_peek_head (stack) == context' failed

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:42:55.863: g_main_context_push_thread_default: assertion 'acquired_context' failed

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:42:55.863: g_main_context_pop_thread_default: assertion 'g_queue_peek_head (stack) == context' failed

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:43:05.909: g_main_context_push_thread_default: assertion 'acquired_context' failed

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:43:05.909: g_main_context_pop_thread_default: assertion 'g_queue_peek_head (stack) == context' failed

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:43:15.958: g_main_context_push_thread_default: assertion 'acquired_context' failed

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:43:15.958: g_main_context_pop_thread_default: assertion 'g_queue_peek_head (stack) == context' failed
[2023-07-04 16:43:25] Background update loop checking for update. . .
[2023-07-04 16:43:25] Suche nach verfügbaren Updates …
[2023-07-04 16:43:25] Downloading manifest: https://client-update.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam_client_ubuntu12?t=3040575151
[2023-07-04 16:43:25] Manifest download: send request
[2023-07-04 16:43:25] Manifest download: waiting for download to finish

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:43:26.005: g_main_context_push_thread_default: assertion 'acquired_context' failed

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:43:26.005: g_main_context_pop_thread_default: assertion 'g_queue_peek_head (stack) == context' failed
[2023-07-04 16:43:26] Manifest download: finished
[2023-07-04 16:43:26] Download skipped: /steam_client_ubuntu12?t=3040575151 version 1687386907, installed version 1687386907, existing pending version 0
[2023-07-04 16:43:26] Nothing to do

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:43:36.055: g_main_context_push_thread_default: assertion 'acquired_context' failed

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:43:36.055: g_main_context_pop_thread_default: assertion 'g_queue_peek_head (stack) == context' failed

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:43:46.102: g_main_context_push_thread_default: assertion 'acquired_context' failed

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:43:46.102: g_main_context_pop_thread_default: assertion 'g_queue_peek_head (stack) == context' failed

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:43:56.104: g_main_context_push_thread_default: assertion 'acquired_context' failed

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:43:56.104: g_main_context_pop_thread_default: assertion 'g_queue_peek_head (stack) == context' failed

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:44:06.151: g_main_context_push_thread_default: assertion 'acquired_context' failed

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:44:06.151: g_main_context_pop_thread_default: assertion 'g_queue_peek_head (stack) == context' failed

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:44:16.195: g_main_context_push_thread_default: assertion 'acquired_context' failed

(steam:47450): GLib-CRITICAL **: 16:44:16.195: g_main_context_pop_thread_default: assertion 'g_queue_peek_head (stack) == context' failed

I've been using the Linux client since the beta in 2011 and it feels like I get it about every 2-3 years on average, but the data I have suggests that it's closer to once a year.

Personally, I think the survey shouldn't be randomized as they say it is because that opens up the question of whether it's truly random, as we see here, and it's not a true representation of the entire userbase but an approximation based on a fraction of users. That isn't great when the historical data is compared, as it is directly on the results page, and some people and publications speculate about what caused even the smallest of changes. I would suggest by default it should prompt users every month that they are logged into the client and allow them to opt into automatic collection our opt out entirely.

Let's take the June results to show how small changes in a large dataset can mean large changes in small data points.

^{% change of OS = % change of all / (% of all - % change of all)}

OSX dropping by a full quarter in one month certainly looks suspicious. It would help to have the raw numbers along with each percentage. While it may appear that users switched from OSX and Linux to Windows, it's very possible that the user counts moved opposite of the percentage share because the total user count changed.

Anyway, I digress. To help determine the truth of this survey frequency issue, I think we need a more scientific analysis of data from installations across all platforms. We aren't going to get anyone without the issue showing up here and even if Windows users got the survey just as infrequently, they don't have the same reason to be concerned about it that we do. Windows is so far ahead that they don't care about the market share, while we're afraid of anything that might make Linux appear even slightly less popular than it is.

That said, either get more data from your friends and family or give up on this issue.

Here's what I found from all my copies of config.vdf and from others I've asked. I'll edit as I receive more data.

^{* Some survey dates may have been missed, in which case the days since actual previous survey may be lower.}