The Beta branch will be updated each Monday

Oct 9, 2015 12:01 GMT  ·  By

Now that Valve has made SteamOS 2.0 the official branch, the developers have also explained how they plan to upgrade the operating systems and with what frequency.

Those of you who followed the development cycle of SteamOS know that the updates that are released for this OS don't arrive on a regular basis. Usually, when enough package updates gather, a new version of the OS is released. Most of the time is just that, some new package, but new features do land from time to time. The truth is that besides the drivers, kernel updates, and various other components, the devs don't need to make any kind of major modifications.

SteamOS is based on Debian 8.2, and it comes with the GNOME desktop, but it boots by default in the Steam Big Picture and that's the desktop being used. The Steam component is upgraded much more frequently, so the developers don't need to touch the Linux base if it's stable.

That's in theory. In reality, all kinds of small issues are found all the time, security problems need to be patched, so they will have to upgrade it much more often than they are currently doing it.

SteamOS 2.0 to be updated weekly

The developers know that they haven't dedicated enough time to SteamOS, and they plan to improve that by keeping it updated. Soon, a lot of users will get the Valve Steam Machines, and the system will spread. That also means that problems will be much better reported and that all kind of issues will pop up.

"SteamOS currently has two different repositories, 'brewmaster' and 'brewmaster_beta'. 'brewmaster_beta' is a testing release where fixes and features will gradually accumulate on a daily or weekly basis. When the beta stabilizes, those fixes will be promoted to the 'brewmaster' repository. This process is similar to the existing steam/steam_beta process. Important security updates or critical bugfixes may get pushed directly to 'brewmaster' if needed. Currently we are aiming for a rhythm where brewmaster_beta is updated every Monday and brewmaster gets updated on the first Wednesday of the month. We expect this will change over time," is marked in the official FAQ.

You can download SteamOS from Softpedia and give it a spin. It's not a live CD and it needs to be installed.