14 DAY TRIAL // SteamOS, a Debian-based distribution developed by Valve to be used in its hybrid PC / console, has received an update for the Beta branch, a couple of fixes, and a new important package.
Valve has two builds for SteamOS. One is a stable version (sort of) and the other one is a Beta (Alchemist). The differences between them are not that big at the moment, but from time to time, Valve makes some changes on the Beta side that need to be tested by the community before landing in the Stable release.
As you all know, SteamOS is a fork of Debian and, despite the fact that this is the Beta version, the distribution is actually using Debian “Wheezy” 7.1 as its base and some packages from the 7.5 release of the same distro.
SteamOS features a backported eglibc 2.17 version from Debian testing, various third-party drivers and updated graphics stack (Mesa 10.0.0.1), Linux kernel 3.10.11 (there is no sign that it's going to change anytime soon), and a custom graphics compositor designed to provide a seamless transition between Steam, its games, and the SteamOS system overlay.
This compositor has been added with the latest SteamOS 106 update, which is now only available for the Alchemist release. This is a very important change that needs some serious testing before being released into the wild.
According to the changelog, support has been added for more third-party controller device IDs (the operating system should now be able to recognize many more devices) and a black screen that occurred on Intel graphics when launching some games has been fixed.
The systems requirements for Steam OS haven't changed and they 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 106 Beta right now from Softpedia and take it for a spin.