14 DAY TRIAL // Valve has released a new Beta version of its SteamOS Linux operating system, and they have upgraded a number of packages, mostly to fix various small problems and security issues.
SteamOS is a Linux distribution based on Debian, in this case, the "Wheezy" branch Debian. Despite the close relationship that Valve had with Canonical, the company chose to get Debian for their base. The distribution is not a regular one, and users will see it boot directly into Steam Big Picture. There is a regular desktop available, but almost none of the usual apps is available by default.
This operating system is built as a gaming solution and less as just another Linux distribution that aims to do everything, including games. Developers from Valve make sure that gamers have access to the latest drivers and all the best improvements that are available at any given time. It makes SteamOS the best way to play games and the only OS for this Valve will provide feedback and troubleshooting.
A new Beta doesn't mean new features
Valve is pretty happy with SteamOS as it is right now, and they haven't added any more features for quite some time, although they do aim to keep all the packages under the hood updated. The integrated Steam client is a different matter entirely. That particular piece of software is upgraded a lot, and it reflects in SteamOS as well.
According to the changelog, some of the packages updated in this latest Beta update include curl, dpkg, Iceweasel, libx11, libxrender, ntp, openldap, openssl, and a few others.
There are no separate downloads for the stable and Beta version, so if you want to run SteamOS Beta, you will need to change the repository from stable to Beta. It's explained in great detail in the official FAQ, but please keep in mind that once you go Beta, you can't go back to stable.
You can download the latest SteamOS release from Softpedia.