Steam on Linux use has hit an all-time high! With the Steam Survey results for October 2025 coming out this evening, Steam on Linux has finally cracked the 3% threshold! A few months back Steam on Linux was close to 3% before stumbling a bit but now it’s above that elusive threshold. The only time Steam on Linux use was close to the 3% mark was when Steam on Linux initially debuted a decade ago and at that time the overall Steam user-base was much smaller than it is today. Long story short, thanks to the ongoing success of Valve’s Steam Deck and other handhelds plus Steam Play (Proton) working out so well, these October numbers are the best yet.
What’s that got to do with MS’s decision to kick them out? What’s the Venn diagram of mission critical systems and systems running Valorant/League?
I’m not disagreeing that these bullshitty kernel drivers running from boot exist, I’m stating that MS aren’t going to do shit about it if even more risky kernel drivers aren’t planned to be removed from the OS and there’s plenty of other popular anti cheat drivers that are only loaded at runtime.
I think the point is that, if Microsoft actually makes an API for the features that kernel-level software needs. They are going to boot everyone out of the kernel, mission critical systems and anti-cheat systems included.
I know people in the working group in the cybersecurity space working with MS on these APIs and this really isn’t their plan. They aren’t doing it to kick people out - cybersecurity want out for themselves as no one wants to do a CrowdStrike.
There are countless other use cases for kernel drivers that won’t be in scope of the APIs being drafted.