Valve has just released a new update for the stable branch of SteamOS and they've updated a ton of important packages, including the proprietary drivers and the Linux kernel.

Most of the important development for SteamOS seems to be over and the developers are now working to improve upon the foundations. That means that they need to constantly upgrade the software and the core packages, including the drivers. These are some of the most important components because they are a great contributor to the gaming performance.

Even if this is a Linux distribution, SteamOS is ultimately built as a gaming machine. It might not have the best selection of apps and libraries to function as a day-to-day system, which can be done with some tweaking, but it's the best combination possible for a gaming rig.

Is SteamOS stable or not?

As it stands right now, Valve has two branches in the works for SteamOS, one that is stable and the other one that is considered Beta. On the other hand, Valve has yet to announce the official release of SteamOS, so you can think of it as work in progress. It's a rather grey area that will be cleared up once the Steam Machines consoles have landed.

The drivers for the systems have been upgraded, so the NVIDIA 343.22 and AMD 14.9 versions have been implemented by default. Also, the Linux kernel has been updated to version 3.10.60 and many packages from the Debian 7.7 have been made available and upgraded.

The Valve devs also improved the performance of 32-bit apps and games. "Improved performance of timing system calls for 32-bit applications by backporting i386 VDSO changes from upstream kernel and adding eglibc support for them," is noted in the announcement.

These stable release of SteamOS can be downloaded from Softpedia, but please keep in mind that there is no Live image and you will need to install it in order to test it.