Actually the linux market share is reported differently, Ubuntu, Mint, etc... are all linux as is most of the 0.6% other so usage is between 1.5% to 2% on any given month.  It was lower last month than usual.

But you are right, market share is small right now.

Fair enough. But even if you add up all Linux flavors you get 0.9%. 1.5% if you add the "other" which could be windows 2000 for all we know...

The problem with Linux is that they really can't go after the PC gaming market. Even before you get in to lack of software, there is no wide scale driver support like you find on Windows and Mac to the lesser extent. Linux hackers/users have long been known to make their own drivers by using a well documented method of..."Lets write to registry A, and see what happens...". 

What Linux based Steambox can do is go after console manufacturers with dedicated accessories, games and such and use an open platform as an incentive...but I am not sure they can compete with the open platform model considering both PS4 and Xbox One are offering indie friendly open platform options.

Don't get me wrong, if Gabe makes a better product, I will use it. But as is, its just been smoke and downright lies on his part (about windows 8)...

As someone in that 1% or so of steam users, the games and support is getting much better. The folks at Valve, Paradox, Deep Silver (Metro Last Light), and so on have supported or will support it shortly. Tons of indie releases have come as well, and when the steambox hits the shelves the linux numbers will go up. Native linux games run faster on linux than windows on the same hardware, so I have been enjoying Gabes gaming future. A lot of linux users run games in WINE (windows emulator) which comes up on steam as more windows users, not that I think that is concealing great hordes of linux gamers (maybe half of them). It is mighty early days for real commercial game support on linux.

His discussion about user centric gaming and the problems with the proprietary console models was interesting, especially the time it takes to get patches approved for games. He discusses the rate of change under various models and that although PC markets are shrinking, Valve is growing at 76% per year. A lot of the talk is not about linux specifically but the market in general. So even if you reject the notion that "linux is the future of gaming" there is a lot of interesting stuff in the video.

^
Fair enough (again). I'll watch it fully when I get home. Had 2 mins to skim over it...

Drivers are a mixed bag, NVIDIA makes top notch drivers on par with thier windows ones.  Intel support is vastly improved and should catch up to partiy within a few months.  AMD is a mixed bag, it has been bad but has shown some real improvement  of late, due in no small part to Valve's moves.  The open source drivers for intel are good, those for the other two are less good, but binaries from NVIDIA/AMD are very respectable.

Indie support for linux has been outstanding.  Mainly due to the ease of entry, Unity a while back began supporting linux so for many small developers they just click "make linux version" and get a linux version.  Other game engines are also showing good support, like Crytek (hired a bunch of developers), Torque, Source (obviously) and so on.

Windows 8 and his coments about it are a non issue for me, I don't use windows for work or home, I have not in years. But I can see how his inflamitory remarks may have disturbed windows devotees.  Windows still has the best selection of games and will for some time to come due to that huge back catalogue.

I am sure Gabe was invited to speak there, so he ended up speaking to the audience.  What he said fit his audience.

I dont he is talking about PC linux, most likely steambox. Again, gabe newell > your knowledge.

Looking at the quality of your posts and arguments here it's pretty safe to say that:

my knowledge > your knowledge

I'd be glad to take a test to prove it actually. 

From other interviews with valve folks the strategy seems to be linux desktop as a gateway to steambox and linux mobile (android is a linux flavour).  But the big numbers will not come in desktop linux... well not soon at any rate.

I think he has to persuade major PC publishers to start releasing OpenGL versions of their games again (anyone remember those good all days?), if Linux is to ever gain any more share than it currently has.