14 DAY TRIAL // SteamOS, a Debian-based distribution developed by Valve to be used in its hybrid PC / console, has been updated to version 113 for the Alchemist branch.
Valve has two builds for SteamOS. One is a stable version (sort of) and the other one is a Beta (Alchemist). Up until a week ago the two versions have been almost identical, which meant that maintaining two different branches was really nonsensical. This has started to change and Valve has released a second Beta in just a few days, making some important updates.
According to the changelog, a number of packages have received some upstream security fixes, such as openssl, libvdpau, debootstrap, libdrm, libxfont, tzdata, and libxfont. Also, a few XBMC dependencies have been added to the repositories, like fonts-android, fribidi, heimdal, jasper, jbigkit, jquery, libgsm, lzo2, node-iscroll, python-imaging, sidplay-libs, tbb, and vdpau-video.
SteamOS has been out for a few months now and the system has managed to get off the ground. At first, the OS was pretty rigid and only a few things could be changed or improved, but with the help of the community many aspects of the operating system have drastically changed.
This Linux distribution is essentially a Debian fork, using Debian “Wheezy” 7.1 as its base, although the developers also integrated some packages from the 7.5 branch. The Linux kernel used is 3.10.11, although newer versions might get implemented soon.
Keep in mind that, in order to get these fixes for the operating system, you will need to get into the Beta, but going back to the Stable is not really an option. You will be stuck with it until the stable version catches up.
The system requirements for Steam OS haven't changed and have been pretty much the same since the beginning: an Intel or AMD 64-bit capable processor, 4GB or more memory, a 250GB or larger disk, NVIDIA, Intel, or AMD graphics card, and a USB port or DVD drive for installation.
Very soon, SteamOS will be ready for daily use, making it easier to install new packages that are not part of the original OS. As it stands right now, SteamOS can only be used for gaming and it will take some time until developers implement the rest of the functions that you would find in a normal distro.
Check the official announcement for more details about this release. You can download SteamOS 113 Beta right now from Softpedia and take it for a spin.