So... does that mean that the software Ubisoft uses to make their games is also pirated? Someone should report them to the http://www.bsa.org/!!!

You know, if you do some dubious math...

As the total number of programs installed on all computers increases, it's reasonable to assume that the total number of pirated programs increases as well. So as the total number of programs approaches infinity, so does the total number of pirated programs. Ubisoft's not doing enough!

On a long enough timeline we all die and every point ever is irrelevant.

I would expect that there would be a close relationship with World Wide total OS % and Steam usage, but maybe Steam users are just weird.

Vista 32 is broken out in Steam (vs Vista 64), the one article only had data on Vista 32 back then so I compared Vista 32 then and now

My entire point is that Steam is doing "something" wrong, and I very much doubt that it is deliberate - so you can keep your tin hat on

Then you are obviously not thinking logically: business has the biggest impact on the OS market share, businesses don't have Steam installed on their computers (usually), and vusinesses are the reason Vista's Market share is so low. When you remove the business aspect, Vista's share would naturally be a lot larger.



Man, if Valve has issues crunching simple numbers, I'm really glad they don't have my credit card number *imagines billing slip where they misplaced the decimal point*

That was NOT the consensus opinion of the PC industry!

But no, the reason I think Steam is doing something wrong is that Vista seems to be too large a percentage of the OSs, and I thought I remembered it being a smaller percentage "before" (earlier this year, or last year?? not sure). And I still say it makes no sense for Vista's percentage to grow - too many assumptions have to line up to make that possible

I only saw one Vista 32 statistic, must have missed the other. Can you post them both next to each other?

Too many assumptions have to line up? What, that Steam just happens to be growing faster in the Vista market? That's one assumption and not a very shocking one. Not shocking compared to your assumption that Steam is flubbing simple addition and division, at least.

Only one assumption needs to be made: Steam's userbase is growing while the home OS market is staying relatively stagnant. That's not exactly a stretch of the imagination at all as far as assumptions go.

Also, when you factor in the alternative: Steam fails at doing basic arithmetic, I think it becomes quite obvious what is going on.

It IS possible, but I still don't think that is what is happening - anybody got any statistics to prove me wrong? I expect that Vista share of TOTAL PCs is decreasing world wide, it MUST be, cause MS is still selling lots of Win7 but no Vista. So it still seems illogical that Steam would show Vista % increasing in the same time period



see above

http://gs.statcounter.com/#os-ww-monthly-201011-201111

Most Windows 7 growth comes from Windows XP replacement (Like I said already: Business has the biggest impact on OS share, and they skipped Vista and are currently upgrading from XP to 7). Windows Vista has a year-over-year negative growth of only 5 percentage points

It isn't illogical at all that Vista is increasing for steam because Steam market share != OS Market share and the two have no direct relationship. If you cannot comprehend the fact that Steam's userbase does not have a large impact nor speak for the OS market as a whole, then that is your problem, but it is quite obvious that that is the case especially given that Steam has virtually no business userbase (though I'm certain a small few users have snuck it on their workstations).

Agreed. Windows 7 is a far streamlined version of Vista. Vista did have some performance issues on release...especially with older hardware. After the last service pack Vista didn't have too many problems except on older hardware. The main reason Vista got such a bad reputation was HAL growing pains. Hardware manufacturers didn't do a good job overhauling their device drivers for Vista (either took a long time or did a lousy job), which caused people upgrading to Vista to have all sorts of problems. This wasn't an inherent issue with the OS, though, and it got better over time. Thing is, once people start thinking that something is bad they don't like to acknowledge that things change or that they might have been placing blame in the wrong place(s).


That's because consensus opinions on the internet are almost always under-informed and largely come from hearsay and bandwagons rather than actual fact, independent thought, and personal experience.


This is where your logic is wrong. The numbers published by Steam aren't the totals for each OS...they're the totals for PCs that have Steam installed for each OS. You can see how those aren't the same thing and could produce wildly different percentages, right?


Russel's Teapot. You have to show evidence that Steam is wrong before anyone needs to prove you wrong that they are wrong.

But it IS still the consensus, and affected a lot of buyers decisions



I really would NOT expect wildly different percentage : Steam has a fairly large database, I'd expect them to be reasonably close to total %s



Nah, I'm right UNLESS you can prove me wrong, and that is just the way it is! :hubbahubba:

http://www.worldtech24.com/software/windows-7-passes-xp-steam-mac-os-x-grabs-8-share

http://news.idg.no/cw/art.cfm?id=32896C49-1A64-6A71-CED8AF699C57ADA7

http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/08/windows-7-overtakes-windows-vista.ars

Which is why no one is buying Vista computers, but the home OS market, which has historically been static and computers will stay in service for many years between upgrades, Vista has not decreased much (it also hasn't grown much either)



That's because you are foolishly thinking that the PC gamer market has a large impact on the computer industry. That is a subset of the minority impactor (consumers, the business is the major factor in the OS market). So your problems with the statistics are the result of your incorrect thinking process.


You aren't wrong in thinking Vista isn't growing, you are just wrong in thinking Steam accurately reflects the OS market in general, which has been thoroughly proven at this point.

All you need to do is look at screen resolution for steam users compared to http://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php?year=2011&month=10 to realize this (once again: the result of business not caring for Widescreen mostly, whereas gamers do)

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/03/16/oh-ubisoft-torrented-their-own-music/

That...but that's...

That made my day.

i dont understand why you care about this

I really do not care about Vista at all, but I do care about some other stats on Steam. This one looks wrong to me. And if it is wrong, what does that mean for other stats?

There are several factors which could plausibly skew the Steam results away from the universal figures. I betcha that the average performance level of hardware is significantly higher among the computers they survey, too .

I hate to break it to ya, but all stats are wrong. Even this one. Some guy once said 'There's three types of lies - Lies, damn lies, and statistics.' After taking a statistics class in college, I know it's true.

I've taken several statistics classes, both at the undergraduate and graduate level. There are certainly ways to lie about statistics - there are ways to lie about everything - but the question is: why. Valve has absolutely no reason to lie about the statistics it gathers. There is absolutely no evidence to indicate that they have fabricated the statistics - none except for some guy on the forums going "but Vista svcks, therefore Valve is lying to us!"

I've got a Vista computer with Steam on it. So, theres one...