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.