  A quasiparticle description of the thermodynamics of deconfined matter,
reproducing both the perturbative limit and nonperturbative lattice QCD data at
finite temperature, is generalized to finite chemical potential. By a flow
equation resulting from Maxwell's relation, the equation of state is extended
from zero to non-zero quark densities. The impact of the massive strange flavor
is considered and implications for cold, charge-neutral deconfined matter in
$\beta$-equilibrium in compact stars are given.
