News briefs for December 20, 2018.
Qt introduces Qt for Python. This new offering allows “Python developers
to streamline and enhance their user interfaces while utilizing Qt’s
world-class professional support services”. According to the press release,
“With Qt for Python, developers can quickly and easily visualize the massive
amounts of data tied to their Python development projects, in addition to
gaining access to Qt’s world-class professional support services and
large global community.” To download Qt for Python, go here.
As of January 1, 2019, all works published in the US in 1923 will enter
the public domain. The Smithsonian
reports that it’s been “21 years since the last mass expiration of
copyright in the U.S.” The article continues:
“The release is unprecedented, and its
impact on culture and creativity could be huge. We have never seen such a
mass entry into the public domain in the digital age. The last one—in
1998, when 1922 slipped its copyright bond—predated Google. ‘We have
shortchanged a generation,’ said Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet
Archive. ‘The 20th century is largely missing from the internet.'”
Red
Hat chooses Team Rubicon for its 2018 US corporate holiday donation.
The $75,000 donation will “will contribute to the organization’s efforts to
provide emergency response support to areas devastated by natural disasters.”
From Red Hat’s announcement: “By pairing the skills and experiences of
military veterans with first responders, medical professionals and technology
solutions, Team Rubicon aims to provide the greatest service and impact
possible. Since its inception following the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Team
Rubicon has launched more than 310 disaster response operations in the U.S.
and across the world—including 86 in 2018 alone.”
SUSE
Linux Enterprise 15 Service Pack 1 Beta 1 is now available. Some of the
changes include Java 11 is now the default JRE, libqt was updated to 5.9.7,
LLVM was updated to version 7, and much more. According to the announcement,
“roughly 640 packages have been touched specifically for SP1, in addition to packages
updated with Maintenance Updates since SLE 15.” See the release
notes for more information.
Microsoft yesterday announced “Project Mu” as an open-source UEFI alternative
to TianoCore. Phoronix
reports that “Project Mu is Microsoft’s attempt at ‘Firmware as a
Service’ delivered as open-source. Microsoft developed Project Mu under the
belief that the open-source TianoCore UEFI reference implementation is ‘not
optimized for rapid servicing across multiple product lines.'”
See also the Microsoft
blog for details.