14 DAY TRIAL // SteamOS, a Debian-based distribution developed by Valve to be used in its hybrid PC / console, has been updated to version 118 for the stable branch.
Valve has two builds for SteamOS. One is a stable version (sort of) and the other one is a Beta (Alchemist). The developers have decided to bring the changes made in the Beta version in the last few weeks to the stable branch. It's mostly security fixes, but users should get it nonetheless.
The first things mentioned in the changelog are the upstream fixes for the latest OpenSSL problems recently discovered: CVE-2014-0195, CVE-2014-0224, CVE-2014-0221, and CVE-2014-3470. This is very interesting because SteamOS doesn't ship with OpenSSL installed by default, but the developers made sure that the version in the repository is up to date.
Also, gnutls26 gnutls26, lxml, e2fsprogs, iptables, libvdpau, debootstrap, libdrm, libxfont, and tzdata have been replaced with newer versions from the Debian repos.
The Valve developers said that some XBMC dependencies have been added to the repositories as well: fonts-android, fribidi, heimdal, jasper, jbigkit, jquery, libgsm, lzo2, node-iscroll, python-imaging, sidplay-libs, tbb, and vdpau-video.
This Linux distribution is essentially a Debian fork, using Debian “Wheezy” 7.1 as its base, although the developers have also integrated some packages from the 7.5 branch. The Linux kernel used is 3.10.11, although newer versions might get implemented soon.
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.
Steam OS is still pretty far off from a day-to-day Linux distribution and it's likely that it will never be a regular operating system. For now, the Steam Machines and SteamOS have been postponed until spring, which is not great news, but Valve still has a number of problems to fix.
As it stands right now, the two versions available for download, the Beta and the stable release, are practically the same. They will be different again when the first update arrives for the development version of SteamOS.
Check the official announcement for more details about this release. You can download SteamOS 118 stable right now from Softpedia and take it for a spin. Make sure you meet the system requirements in order to have a smooth experience.