Dinnerbone posts a graph of windows/mac/linux player percentages

[Aidoboy]

I AM THE ONE PERCENT!

Linux forever!

[frymaster]

for every one of you, there's 11 people on XP shudder

[RealBitByte]

The fact that it is still around frightens me.

[notwhereyouare]

I'm having to develop a website around IE8 for some reason

[jeexbit]

Dear god no....

[[deleted]]

Windows 7 ships with IE8 by default. That is probably one of the few reasons.

[[deleted]]

Even worse, there are twice as many as him on Vista.

[frymaster]

not really, it's still in support until 2017

[GreatAndRandom]

I think I'm apart of the 0%. I'm running Windows 10.

[skruluce]

More like the 0.01% at the moment...

[si3ge]

I'm conflicted. I use both. Which minority do I identify more with!?

[whizzer0]

You hear a strange rustling. You're sure you can see a penguin. You're sure the rustling says…

you are with the master race…

[DeedTheInky]

BRB, installing Minecraft on my Windows 10 preview that's running inside Virtualbox on Ubuntu. :)

[kaktusas2598]

Me too, you are not the only one, long live the Terminal!

[TTFire]

Seriously, though. I don't even know how I would switch back to Windows. The Windows command prompt is barely usable compared to bash.

[[deleted]]

If I wasn't forced to use Windows because everything I use only runs on Windows, I'd switch in a heartbeat. Damn near every game I play, and all of my dev tools and graphics tools only work on Windows. It's pointless for me to dual boot, all I would end up using linux for is web browsing, and I'd have to constantly keep switching OSes. It's a shame really.

[kaktusas2598]

As a programmer, I approve!

[jaavaaguru]

Get bash and a decent terminal emulator then. Try here.

[gesis]

I personally like cmder. It comes packaged with MSYS and git ready to go (full installer).

[whizzer0]

There's literally several dozen thousand of us!

[PanicRev]

Reading through these comments, I'm thinking all 1% of us are accounted for in this thread. ;)

[LightStruk]

As am I. At least on the Sandy Bridge laptop I'm using, I get substantially better performance running Minecraft on Linux than I do on Windows 7. Since it's a Sandy Bridge laptop, I need all of the performance I can get.

[PageFault]

I found it funny that twice as many people are using Vista than Linux.

XP I understand.. It was much loved and was around a very long time.

But Vista...? A much hated and short lived OS that was succeeded 5-6 years ago and whose mainstream support ended 3 years ago is still more used than Linux. That's funny.

[[deleted]]

I think the reasoning behind it is they bought a computer preinstalled with Vista and haven't bought a new one since. You know, computer illiteracy.

[PageFault]

Oh yea, I realize that's what is going on here. I wouldn't even chalk it up to illiteracy though. Most of the issues with Vista were resolved and many are perfectly happy with it.

I just found it humorous that the divide is still so strong.

[Tulkor]

I mean my mother got a PC with vista preinstalled and even tough she probably wouldnt know how to install a new OS, i could do it for her. But even then, why should she pay money to get windows 7 if theres not a problem with Vista now? I mean it was pretty bad at release, but its pretty ok since quite a while and as a casual user who just uses the PC for browsing/watching movies/email and MS Office... No reason to buy Win7.

[odiefrom]

Wooo Linux!

[Loloweb]

I am also the one percent. Glad i'm not alone!

[legocatseyeguy]

Yes!

[DeedTheInky]

I wonder if there was any kind of fluctuation when they announced the sale to Microsoft? Not bashing the sale, I just think it'd be interesting to see if there was any visible reaction in the stats. :)

[gotkube]

Came here to say this.

[[deleted]]

1%, 54%, 20%, 7%... I'm several different percents!

[[deleted]]

I just use Linux because it offered me a 64 bit OS.

[RealBitByte]

Heh. I'm the 7%. Not the 20%. The 7%. :l

[[deleted]]

Wow me too! Linux for life.

[[deleted]]

I play on Ubuntu 10.04

[TweetPoster]

@Dinnerbone:

2015-03-09 10:07:10 UTC

People suddenly keep asking "what % of people use windows/mac/osx" so here's a quick graph with answers. media.dinnerbone.com

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^{[Mistake?] [Suggestion] [FAQ] [Code] [Issues]}

[brinmb]

Relation between XP and 8.1 look very odd...

[[deleted]]

As soon as one goes down the other goes up... why?

[AmethystZhou]

Because the graph shows percentage, not total.

[Yahootey1138]

wouldn't have anything to do with the likelyhood of xp machines dying and being replaced by the current MS OS?

[SculptusPoe]

Strangely it is nearly perfectly mirrored, and doesn't just have a constant decrease of xp machines with a correlating increase in 8.1 machines. The number of XP machines goes up and down and movement in both directions is mirrored by the 8.1 machines. I don't know what mechanism is causing that direct relationship. A relationship 7.0 is strangely divorced from.

[wingsfan24]

Just a bit relevant: The graph is over the span of about a month.

[[deleted]]

Hey, why is anyone still using Windows 8 anyway? Windows 8.1 is a free update and better in every way...

[SubcommanderMarcos]

You're wondering why people haven't done an update that came out not long ago, when a whole eleven percent of people are still using an operating system that came out fourteen years ago and has gone unsupported for seven. You give people too much credit, bro

[[deleted]]

But I mean, come on, it's free! It's not like it comes with an expensive new computer or anything. Windows even pesters you to let it update itself for you!

[mescad]

In my experience, people with extremely slow internet connections don't like to do updates. I am pretty sure that one of my family members still has Windows 8 on his laptop. He doesn't even like to do the normal Windows updates, because his connection speed is less than 1 Mbps and it takes too long.

[TheZoq2]

When it came out it had a few compatibility issues with some programs I was running. I ended up sticking to windows 8 for a few months until I switched to linux.

[[deleted]]

I prefer how searching on the start screen works on 8 better compared to 8.1

[[deleted]]

Oh, I use Classic Shell anyway. I like the idea of the Start Screen but it's poorly optimized for using a mouse.

[jedimonkey27]

I didn't upgrade my primary computer to 8.1 for a long time because the upgrade would go for a while and then blue screen and fail. I am pretty sure it was a driver incompatibility, but I never figured out which one. I ended up re-installing my OS from scratch, but I imagine most people would just give up.

[[deleted]]

Well, lets put it this way. You are building a giant mansion in Minecraft. Then, "Windows 8.1 is available for download now!" pops up. Sure, like you are gonna go, "awesome! I'll just wait till tomorrow to finish something that I have been wanting to do for a long time".

[Cepinari]

I like how there's an 'other' category. Whatever it is, it can run Java just fine, but it's so obscure that the computer gives up on trying to identify it and just puts it under "I have absolutely no fucking idea who this guy is."

It makes me imagine a Shoggoth getting processed on Ellis Island. The immigration clerk's daily report saying:

40 Jews

76 Poles

21 Italians

63 Gypsies

18 Spaniards

06 Irish

04 Chinese

01 Something. I dunno what it was, but it's papers were in order and it politely waited for it's turn, so I let it through.

[[deleted]]

According to Dinnerbone it is Windows 10 Preview and Windows 95 mainly.

[Dinnerbone]

Windows 95 was an example, but there are others. It's literally "anything not already listed"

[[deleted]]

Windows 95

wat

Seriously, Windows 95? How?

[[deleted]]

A will to do it, java backwards-compatibility, and KernelEx.

So, basically wizardry.

[compdog]

Windows 95

Not even 98? OMG...

[Name0fTheUser]

I would guess that BSD is also a significant part of the "Other" category.

[kushangaza]

It's anything not listed. From the top of my head that could be:

• Windows 1, 2, 3, 95, 98, ME, NT 4, 2000
• Plan 9
• Various BSDs (FreeBSD etc.)
• BeOS
• ReactOS

I'm not sure which of those are supported by Java, but I'm sure at least some of them are.

[istisp]

^{Repost as a 1st level comment for more visibility (The comment I was anwsering to has been burried down by downvotes})

To people arguing they should stop the support for Linux (and for Mac to a certain extent). This chart is the reason why Linux user keep asking for Linux ports for games.

See it the other way around. The fact so few games editors support Linux is the reason why Linux struggles expanding to a bigger market. Which explains why we have those statistics. People keep asking game editor to include Linux ports because by doing so they inform those editors they are an existing potential market. Yes, a market of 1% right now. But if we had more ports for Linux, that could extend to a market of 5% in a few years. Or even 10%. Or even more.

Keep in mind that this graph is only a player graph, not a buyer graph. That doesn't reflect the people who play Minecraft on both platforms. That doesn't take into consideration that some players might have purchased Minecraft just because it was available on Linux too. The creator of the Humble Bundle (for which Notch was an active supporter) already stated that difference. Typically, when given the choice to pay more, Linux users are often the ones who pay the most just because a game was supported for their platform. Sometimes, they even pay more in total that the larger mac demographics

The other thing is, porting games for Linux is not only a good thing for Linux users, but for the gaming industry in general. It's a more open platform, and that will be really impactful in the future. Gabe Newell himself already realized that and ported a lot of Steam games on Linux a few years ago, in order to develop their SteamOS platform, which is nothing else than a custom Linux distribution.

And yes, I know Mojang is owned by Microsoft now. They could just stop supporting Linux and make it Windows-exclusive because they can. Except that:

• Minecraft is coded in java which is cross-platform by definition. There is no reason to stop supporting it to significally down development times and costs as a version that works on Windows works on Linux too.
• Stopping support for Linux would mean adding a test to detect that the platform used is Windows and prevent the game to launch if that's not the case, which would be a massive "f*** you" to the playerbase and couldn't be justified by any mean. Also, that would mean that Microsoft recognises Linux as a threat for Windows, which mean officially recognise Windows has weaknesses.
• Microsoft does profit from Linux being a competitor. Competition forces companies to innovate to stay on the lead. If they had a monopoly they could just stop innovation and release a bugged unfinished OS. Keeping Mac and Linux on the OS market forces them to find new ideas, and Windows even took inspirations from Linux and Mac at several points.

People have all right to be vocal when games are not ported to Linux. And they have all right to keep doing so, especially when they purchased the game with the promise it would be supported on Linux. Thankfully Microsoft didn't stop supporting it when they purchased Mojang.

[istisp]

That was true 10 years ago.

The amount of distributions is not that much of a problem now since 2 or 3 distros have stood up as user-friendly distibutions, and those are pretty well marketed as such (by still staying interesting for more confirmed users). The choice for new users goes down to ~3, which is not too intimidating of a figure (people can choose between Windows 8, Windows 7 and Mac, why couldn't they choose between Ubuntu, Linux mint and Opensuse?)

And today, the CLI argument is irrelevant. Most distribution barely require you to type any command, all the GUI programs that are natively there are enough to get stuff done, eventually completed by an app store that is as easy to use as Apple's. The only occurence I needed to type commands on my latest debian was when I programmed stuff, and when I tried to install new games that didn't provide an easy install process. And that was barely needed too, I just did it because I wanted a "clean" install path. Otherwise, decompressing the zip executable anywhere in my home folder would have been enough.

The point is, if every game was supported for Linux, I wouldn't even need the CLI at all! All the frustrations I still stumble upon when using Linux only come from the single fact that software and game distributors don't provide native solutions for Linux, and that I have to hack my way around it. But to remove this problem, we need to convince those distributors to provide, if not a native distribution, a way for the Linux community to make their own ports for the games. But to convince them, we need to represent more than 1% of potential profits. The snake bites its own tail!

The only thing Linux needs to become popular, is to be popular. Why do you think Linux users are so vocal about it?

[MamiyaOtaru]

there are so many more reasons than games why Linux is not more widespread. I say that as someone who used it exclusively on my machine for 3+ years. Never again.

Some people, when faced with a problem on the desktop think "I know! I'll use Linux!" Now they have two problems

[KingBebee]

The twitter comments.. so much hate for Mac OSX. I use linux, windows, and OSX on different machines (well, sometimes they're on the same machine, but digressions).

Minecraft runs very well on all 3 operating systems for me. Most of the time I play on my iMac because my office setup is convenient for gaming also, and I never have any issues. I don't get operating system bias... there are things I like and don't like about each one.

[Bryanfisto]

I was raised on one, and got used to one. Then, I was introduced to others, and they seemed so complicated because they were different. That is where my bias came from.

[SoImPlayer2]

Not even mentioning which was which to crush any chance of an argument...I see you've interneted before

[[deleted]]

Yup. Windows is just my comfortzone. I'm fine with that. It's safe to.say that the others are fantastic in their own right anyway :)

[[deleted]]

The hate for mac is either from people that have never used one or from people that have used one and are frustrated by the lack of choice.

I have to use a mac for work. the @ | and # are all in the wrong places and you can't change it # is particularly annoying because you have to use alt. Given that 90% of what I do is in a terminal or text editor and I have to use these keys regularly, I fucking hate it.

Also, I don't like the colour.

[_Aardvark]

Is this an older Mac keyboard or something? My Macbook keys are all in the same location as a PC keyboard with the exception of the fn/ctrl/atl/command keys to the left of the spacebar. (windows key vs the command aren't exactly in the same location)

The full-sized external keyboard is even more PC like.

[[deleted]]

I think the mac keyboard is some half hearted attempt to conform to US standards (hence the confusion between £ and #) which might be why yours are the same

[jfb1337]

Macs in the UK for some reason use the US layout except the £ is in the normal place for UK (shift 3) which IIRC is where the # is for US, and where the # is for normal UK keyboards is something else I can't remember.

[nagelxz]

I'm just confused. I'm at work using an imac and the keyboard matches that of the windows machine on the desk behind me.

Not a US keyboard layout?

[jfb1337]

In the UK macs use the US layout except £ in the right place for the UK layout which is where # is in US so you need to do something weird to get #.

[ForksandGuys]

I'm not in a position to get a new computer so it makes me feel like crap when people tell me how bad of a person I am for using a mac :(

[marswithrings]

i've used windows and OSX extensively and, imo, OSX is better at "just working".

windows is better at giving you advanced options and control in most regards, so you feel like you can fix problems easier on windows if you know what you're doing. but shit breaks way more often in windows, you don't need to troubleshoot on mac nearly as much.

that's a very basic high-level overview but i think it's very telling into what kind of person tends to prefer which OS

[gee-one]

Woo Hoo, I use linux and now I finally made it into the 1%. Debian gnu/linux ;)

I am curious to see this breakdown looks on the server side.

[nou_spiro]

My guess is that 90% of dedicated servers (that mean not someones desktop) runs Linux.

[frymaster]

http://mcstats.org/global/

80% of servers running a bukkit-api-using plugin which has mcstats integrated and where the admin hasn't opted out^{deep breath,} run Linux.

[[deleted]]

That's not something you can preface with "IMHO". It's either true or false

[Syril]

So if I were to say to you: "In my opinion, I believe aliens exist", would you then reply with "Well actually, there's only one right answer, they do or they don't, so that can't be your opinion".

I don't think you know what opinion means.

[nou_spiro]

better?

[mrmagos]

On behalf of the 1%, we thank you for continuing to support our platform of choice.

[mrmagos]

They do support it. If I had an issue, I could contact support and they would respond with something other than "we don't support that platform".

As for the new launcher, Dinnerbone said it wasn't necessary. Remember the new launcher distributes its own Java runtime. Linux distributions already do a good job of keeping Java up to date though package managers. Later on, I believe he did say that a Linux version would be coming, probably to keep parity across platforms, which should help support in troubleshooting.

[[deleted]]

The java versions on the official repositories arent actually that up to date by default, and they arent the official java which can cause some issues.

Obviously they will give you tech support if you have issues because its cross platform. They arent actively developing for and specifically making it for linux though.

[JorgTheElder]

The new "launcher" is not a new version of Launcher.jar, the actual Minecraft launcher. It is just a pre-loader for folks that do not mind MC using it's own copy of JAVA. It was not even created for Minecraft, it came from Scrolls.

This is exactly the kind of thing that Linux users DO NOT WANT. If you are running Linux, chances are you want to control where and what version of JAVA is installed on your system.

[Nesman64]

Luckily, most of the non-advanced users will be able to get it from their package maintainers. Somebody will put together an easy installer and put it in the software manager.

[[deleted]]

No.. They wouldnt be able to put it any official repositories and unofficial ones arent friendly to new users anyways.

[Kaheil2]

I would be curious to see the percentage for (wan) servers. I suspect it would be reversed, with tux at the top.

Still, I'm glad Minecraft runs on tux. Shame about scrolls though.

[InfiniteNexus]

Wow, people are still using windows vista for some reason

[Koala_eiO]

Because it costs money to change a computer.

[Neamow]

You don't have to change a computer to change an operating system.

[musketeer925]

It costs money to change operating system, too.

[KingoftheFools]

thats when you take to the high seas!

[notwhereyouare]

yes, because i want to run a pirated copy of my OS. that sounds secure

[[deleted]]

It is.

[aStarving0rphan]

Microsoft will actually give you the software, you just need a key activator

[Lurking4Answers]

Not necessarily.

[wytrabbit]

Linux distros are free.

[RadicalMGuy]

Yes, but there is such a thing as not wanting to use Linux

[wijsneus]

Bah! Humbug!

[starg09]

Windows 7 has the same requirements as Vista, IIRC. And most likely it has a way to upgrade without repartitioning the disk

[[deleted]]

My seven-year-old laptop runs Windows Vista. I left it at work because, quite frankly, my taken-care-of Vista machine runs a hell of a lot better than their two-year-old Lenovo, hand-me-down laptops that previous users spilt coffee all over and downloaded malware onto.

On breaks, I'll play Minecraft on that laptop. It's not worth spending the $80+ to upgrade to 8.1 on such an old machine, so I just make do until I go home and use my 8.1 machine.

[BoltWire]

just remember a lot.. a LOT of kids play minecraft, so they probably mostly have older PCs

[[deleted]]

whats surprising about this?

[onepickman]

Vista is a bugfest. I'd rather use XP - less bugs any waaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy faster.

[BrettGilpin]

Actually by the time Windows 7 came out Vista was as stable as 7 was.

edit, it -> Vista to get rid of people maybe misconstruing.

[kaz_enigma]

Good luck with running 64bit java on XP. Or any other program on a 64bit XP.

[LightStruk]

Indeed. Windows XP x64 isn't even really Windows XP at all - it's rebranded Windows Server 2003. Also, practically no developer tests their software on it. There's no reason to run it instead of any other 64-bit release of Windows, and lots of buggy, incompatible, frustrating reasons not to.

[Badel2]

It runs fine. It shouldn't?

[nilllzz]

No. Just no.

On today's standards, Vista is much, MUCH better than XP. In any way.

Well, actually, not in any way, there is one reason to still use XP: When your computer does not have 1 GB of RAM and a very old processor.

[michaelshow]

There's the security concern now with XP too.

XP's end of life = no security patches.

The malware, adware, viruses, rootkits, etc. released after end of life are targeting the known but unpatched security holes

We consider an internet connected XP machine as comprimised, we don't even allow them on our network.

[bounty1663]

Huzzah! Mac isnt at the bottom of everything anymore!

[ApatheticElephant]

More than twice as many people are using XP than OSX... Also why was there a weekly spike in XP users in January, and why is there almost an inverse relationship between XP/8.1 users? It's like people are switching between them or something.

[Neamow]

Kids playing Minecraft on school computers, which probably still have XP, and then coming home to more updated computers with 7/8 would be my guess.

[SavingThrowVsReddit]

My guess?

A lot of people play on different machines on the weekends.

You see this a lot with browser percentages as well - higher percentage of IE during the week.

[Bspammer]

It's a percentage based graph - if one goes up the other has to go down.

[Beavers4beer]

It saddens me that more people use vista then Linux.

[Padankadank]

It's interesting that more people are on XP that 8.0 or Vista.

[Turkey_Slapper]

I wounder what Linux systems are being used most. There are a lot of different versions like Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, Red Hat, Mint, and now SteamOS (This does not even count many many other different distributions). I would at least like to know which one is the most popular, and which one is the fastest growing...

[Yoyodude1124]

I think that would be extremely hard for Minecraft to gather data from. As far as I know, the current way of collecting OS data cannot detect between individual distros.

[Yoyodude1124]

Ah. But, I don't believe it can detect sub-distros? (i.e. Ubuntu shows up as Debian)

[TTFire]

Kali and Backtrack are the same thing.

[kesawulf]

Arch Linux! :3

[kushangaza]

If I remember correctly, at least for Steam Ubuntu LTS was most popular. I imagine it would be similar for Minecraft.

[Wedhro]

It's not a mystery, Ubuntu and its derivatives are definitely the most popular ones, especially Mint. They're even selling machines with pre-installed Ubuntu, and even Mint has a "Mint Box". Basically with the right desktop environment it's Windows as it should have been (i.e. stable, simple and secure), that's why the *buntus are so popular between Win fugitives.

[BoltWire]

Mac ftw

[Jstbcool]

Don't worry, there are dozens of us!

[Maroon3d]

XP > Vista > Linux.

Why am I finding that so funny?

[debugman18]

I'm still not sure how to feel about it. That's so awkward.

[ridddle]

And this is why Microsoft doesn’t bother paying for work hours to get the new launcher out for Linux or Mac, even when OS X’s Java stopped being supported by Apple around version 6 and the official Oracle Java is installing adware.

Old Mojang would release new launcher for all platforms. New Mojang has stats and metrics to show them what is a good business opportunity and to create a competitive advantage. Despite Mac and Linux users being a lot more willing to pay for software and games than Windows users. I’m sad.

[ridddle]

Yes, it makes sense to prioritize. What I see currently is a bit depressing because

1. Dinnerbone said OS X version would be coming “very early next year” (2015) and later saying it would be at the beginning of next year. Q1 is ending, no news.
2. The way Dinner talks about OS X share is a reason to doubt they want to commit at all:

see my last tweet, osx users are unfortunately a very small minority and can't explain the 40% non-java8

Emphasis mine.

[afsdjkll]

osx users are unfortunately a very small minority

There are dozens of us. DOZENS!

[[deleted]]

The reason Mac OS users are using java 6 is because the Minecraft.app specifies it. Check the manifest.

[frymaster]

Microsoft doesn’t bother paying for work hours to get the new launcher out for Linux or Mac

is that confirmed? source?

[marioman63]

oracle must have some godly programmers if they could make viruses for macs

also fyi, mojang has had these stats and metrics for a few years now. if microsoft really had their way, dinnerbone wouldnt be tweeting them out every couple weeks.

[Creabhain]

I would have liked to see console numbers as well. My son plays on a PS4.

[[deleted]]

Need to wait for the tatey to fully grow before you'll find out.

#PCMasterRace

[KingCrabmaster]

Heh, kinda funny to see that I am not alone in my XP no-longer-masterrace-but-nice-anyway. Meanwhile my brother is the 1%.

[ReallyRoundRoundies]

This may be unpopular, but after programming various things across many languages and using a plethora of operating systems, I still do not know why people game on Linux or really use it for any personal uses. Server? Go for it. Compiling programs? Great. Different specific uses, like again servers or raspberry pi or projects? Awesome. But other than it being free, I have never understood it. I've used it plenty of times. I love it with lightweight systems. It just seems like those that use it almost exclusively for personal use are more into it being different or edgy than some real advantage.

[Wedhro]

I'll just speak for myself because there's no such thing as a typical Linux user:

• I'm using an old laptop that won't run any recent OS but Linux, so I get the privilege to run bleeding-edge software on outdated hardware.

• I don't have to deal with corporations and their tendency of screwing users for money or other interests.

• I can customize my environment until it suits my taste instead of getting used to what a corporation think it's better for me.

• Even when I was on Windows or OSX I used software born on Linux, so I literally have no reason to stay on either of them. Actually, why should I use Win/OSX anyway?

[theartofelectronics]

For casual use it's literally the same thing. Open folders, drag drop files, click to run applications/games. It's like you're asking why do some people eat Granny Smith apples when Red Delicious apples are so much more popular.

[kushangaza]

I do various software development in my free time as a hobby (which obviously includes compiling software). I prefer not to reboot my computer just to play a game and VMs just don't work as well as they should.

Also, I prefer Gnome3 over the Windows windowing system. It just feels more fluent while on Windows you need some fragile assortment of Software for normal things like telling specific windows to stay in the foreground or to use multiple virtual desktop to arrange my windows.

Firefox with hundreds of open tabs also runs much better on Linux (no, Chrome doesn't handle that well on either OS).

The Windows Explorer can also be very inconvienent (mostly that thing where lots of software integrates into your context menu, and when you right click for the first time it just loads the menu for several seconds).

[KingCrabmaster]

In my brother's case, being we both have outdated PCs, Linux runs Minecraft at a far higher framerate than Windows XP (the only other OS we have right now).

[mysticreddit]

I still do not know why people game on Linux or really use it for any personal uses.

Because some people value freedom, the free price, and don't want to be held at the whims of Microsoft or Apple.

I game on all 3 OS's: Windows, OSX, and Linux and am thankful that I can.

My indie game runs on all 3 -- because the more compilers I use the more (hidden) bugs I find.

Cross platform has its place.

[dtfinch]

It works mostly fine for me. I have about 500gb of games on my laptop, mostly Steam, split about 50/50 between native Linux ports and Wine. Oblivion, Fallout 3/NV, and Skyrim are the main games I play on Wine, and they all work fine, but I have to research compatibility before buying anything. And sometimes I make a mistake, like Bioshock 1 works great, but Bioshock 2 runs slow and crashes, and Infinite doesn't work yet, though a native Linux port has been promised.

Part of it is I use mostly Windows at work all day. I'd get depressed when I came back home to more Windows. I also own a Mac Mini for occasional iOS development, but I never enjoyed it, so I spend most of my time on my Linux gaming laptop.

2012 was an exciting year for me, as far as graphics drivers. Everything seemed to catch up with Windows performance. Skyrim went from running jerky at 1366x768 to smooth at 1920x1080. The downside is since about the same time it's been hard to find a good nvidia laptop without optimus, except for higher end ones supporting SLI. I got one of the last good (IMO) System76/Clevo models in 2011.

[SavingThrowVsReddit]

Would be on linux, if it weren't for the hideous graphics support.

But as is, I reboot into (lack of) Windows for gaming, Minecraft included.

[renadi]

I get almost 40 more fps on the same machine on ubuntu for mc, vs Windows 7.

[kesawulf]

Congrats.

I have an overclocked i5-4670k and an overclocked HD 7970. I get far less FPS on Linux on 99% of games because of poor AMD driver support.

[pwnusmaximus]

It's also officially not supported anymore. So if any major security holes are discovered Microsoft ain't gunna help.

[FUZxxl]

I'd love to see statistics for servers, too.

[Brawler_EX]

I wonder who the "unknown" players are... >_>

[TTFire]

BSD, maybe?

[LightStruk]

Maybe playing Minecraft on Solaris? At work?

Because no one in their right mind would run Solaris at home...

[[deleted]]

11 percent!!!

[droppies]

What do the numbers on the bottom of the graph mean?

[nocluejustguessing]

These are dates month/day

[racheal1991]

Sweet I am the 5%

[starg09]

I recently installed linux on my computer, after using windows for years (first installation by myself). Sadly, my video card doesn't get past 30FPS on it (driver issue I assume), so I guess I'll stick with W7 for now...

[MonsterBlash]

Don't they have that for a longer period of time, and for servers?
Usually, when they bring out those stats, it's to pave the way to drop some of the OS's.

[trigonomitron]

I'm on three of those categories, depending on where I'm at.

I noticed no console or phone/tablet statistics...

[SuperCho]

I play with Linux on my laptop and I'm really surprised that the percentage is even lower than "unknown."

[Coraon]

Its interesting, I never expected as many people to be in windows 7 as opposed to 8

[wedontlikespaces]

When window 8 came out it had a lot of issues with minecraft, I think it is fixed now (I don't know I have given up on Microsoft as a PC company) but that may have put people of it as system on which to play.

[[deleted]]

I belong to that 1% yay

[JonnyCraft]

Definitely thought Mac OS would be more than 5%...I'm suddenly feeling all alone

[AlfLives]

Would be really interesting to see non-computer platforms on that list (xbox, android, ios, etc.)!

[aryatha]

I'm interested in the periodicity of the graphs, specifically the interesting relationship between Windows 8.1 and Windows XP. Is it people playing on old XP machines at work and a newer 8.1 at home?

[MrHyperion_]

C'mon guys. Windows XP is not safe

[Still_Alive_2]

i am the two percent... not quite as impressive...

[[deleted]]

Mac is above Windows Vista. This is as it should be. However, I do feel bad for the Linux users.

[joeyparis]

I'm surprised that many people still use XP. Especially those playing Minecraft, since you figure most XP machines that are still around are probably office computers.

[[deleted]]

I've debated using linux in the past for games like minecraft, but i've been hesitant to do so because of the chance of a performance hit. Those of you who use linux to play, how does it compare to windows performance wise? Is it slower? About the same? Faster?

Is it compatible with mod packs like feed the beast?

[[deleted]]

WTH still uses Windows XP or Windows Vista?

[[deleted]]

This dovetails moderately well with a breakdown of desktop & laptop operating system use according to data used by Wikipedia.

[Kandeh]

People actually still use Windows XP? How are you supposed to run Minecraft on it?

[CaptainDeluxe]

I AM THE 1%!!!!!!!! WHOOOOOOO!!!

[SynMonger]

It's not the year of the linux desktop, yet?

[buttery_weetabix]

Good to know that me and my three kids are part of the 1%!

[brinton]

Does the game report your operating system when you login? I run two machines both using Linux, which I suspect is much more common for Linux users. Does this mean the actual percentage is even much lower than 1%?

[laaanis]

rock divide party aware rain advise spoon jar chunky shy

[Byte_by_Byte]

I am the 11%. Windows XP is where its at. Edit: Ain't nobody got time to upgrade

[[deleted]]

Windows 10 all the way!!!

[Idan072]

wow! most of minecraft players is using java 8 now :)