What's new in November: AI security agreement, PHP 8.3 releases, Blender 4.0 and more

November was full of news from the fields of artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and mobile technologies. Major IT companies announced new products and releases, and some experts began to wrap up the year with interesting research.

Fedora Linux 39 Release

Fedora Linux 39 was officially released on November 6, 2023, exactly 20 years after the release of Fedora Core 1.

Major desktop updates include GNOME 45, with improved performance and usability, and Fedora Onyx, a new "atomic" desktop based on Budgie. Other desktops, such as KDE, Xfce, and Cinnamon, were also updated.

Cloud images now support Microsoft Azure, in addition to Google Cloud and AWS. Cloud images also allow you to install updates and reboot on initialization.

Many operating system packages have been updated, including GCC 13.2, glibc 2.38, Python 3.12, Rust 1.73, and Inkscape, which recently turned 20 years old.

Support for running Fedora cloud images on Microsoft Azure and automatically installing updates when cloud images are first deployed.

After 20 years of development and community support, Fedora Linux 39 continues Fedora's tradition of providing a complete and up-to-date open-source operating system for a wide range of applications.

18 Countries Signed an AI Security Accord

The intelligence agencies of 18 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany, have signed an agreement to protect consumers from the misuse of artificial intelligence.

The document includes recommendations for developers to create secure AI systems that are resistant to cyber threats. It suggests that potential risks should be considered at all stages of the life cycle of AI systems.

Experts see this multilateral agreement as an important step towards ensuring security in developing and using AI technologies. Jen Easterly, director of the U.S. Cybersecurity Directorate, emphasized that security should be a top priority in the development of AI.

The roadmap.sh Project has Released a New Roadmap

Roadmap.sh is a site that provides various roadmaps and resources to help developers grow their careers and learn new specialties. 

This project offers roadmaps for different developer roles like frontend, backend, full stack, mobile, etc., as well as skills-based roadmaps for technologies like React, Node.js, Python, etc.

In addition to roadmaps, best practice guides are offered on topics such as front-end performance, API security, code review, and more. Content is created and curated by an active developer community. Roadmap.sh is one of the most popular projects on GitHub (#7).

Over the past year, the roadmap.sh project has released roadmaps for C++, SQL, Android, data analysis, technical writing, and game development. In November 2023, an up-to-date roadmap for the Rust developer appeared, providing a step-by-step plan for learning topics ranging from setting up an environment to working with WebAssembly.

All project roadmaps are free and open source, so this might be a good incentive for you to learn something new.

PHP 8.3 Release

A new version of PHP 8.3 was released at the end of November. It contains the following major changes:

• Implemented the ability to override read-only properties of classes when cloning.
• Support for type constants in classes, types, and enumerations.
• Added "#[Override]" attribute to indicate overriding of methods.
• Changed the behavior of negative indices in arrays.
• Added the ability to create anonymous classes in read-only mode.
• Implemented function to validate JSON data.
• Added new POSIX functions
• Improved ability to work with dates, random numbers, and arrays.
• Improved error handling when parsing serialized data.
• Added settings to protect against stack overflows.
• And other changes.

It also mentions that the PHP community will continue to provide support for PHP on Windows after Microsoft discontinues development in July 2020.

A New Study Examines Lifespan of Mobile Games

The "Good Games Don't Die" report published by SuperScale has revealed the "survival rate" of mobile games at different stages of development. According to the company, many mobile game developers face tough obstacles in the market, so this study should inspire experts in their business and provide reliable information about this sphere.

The company surveyed more than 500 developers and came up with the following statistics:

1. 43% of games don't even make it to release due to project cancellations. Of released games, 17% close within six months, and 30% close within one year of release.
2. 83% of mobile games cease development within three years of release. Most revenue is generated in the year of release (76% of games reach peak revenue in the year of release).
3. 48% of developers release updates monthly, and 37% release updates weekly.
4. Many studios have downsized, and some (more than a quarter of respondents) are on the verge of closure. The most vulnerable category is ССС developers (62% of such studios reported layoffs), followed by hyper-casual developers (53%), and puzzle developers (34%).
5. Outsourcing has become more popular over the past year: 40% of studios surveyed have outsourced development tasks, and 30% of studios have outsourced advertising and user engagement.

Data shows that there will be over 6,000 layoffs in the industry in 2023 alone, with mass layoffs affecting the broader technology sector as well. As a result, many developers are looking to improve efficiencies and grow their existing portfolios rather than simply finding the next potential hit project.

2022 will be the first year that the global mobile gaming industry will see a decline in revenue, with player spending down 5% year-on-year. 2023 is also proving to be a challenging year, and by 2024, developers will need to adapt to a new landscape.

Blender 4.0 Release

The Blender Foundation team has released an update to the free 3D modeling software Blender 4.0. The project is distributed under the open GPL license, and the build is available for Linux, Windows, and MacOS. Blender 4.0 is suitable for working with 3D graphics, developing computer games, simulations, rendering, composing, motion tracking, sculpting, animation, and video editing.

• An updated implementation of the shader node of the BSDF principle has been introduced, which significantly expands the modeling possibilities of various types of materials and has become more flexible. In particular, the fabric glow effect is now provided by a new model of microfibers, and the coating layer is placed on top of the glow layer.
• A new AgX color adjustment mode has been added to provide more realistic results in the presence of overlit areas.
• Expanded Voronoi texture node capabilities, in particular, added fractal noise and multi-layer detail adjustment.
• High-poly model loading speed in Cycles has been significantly increased. Light and shadow blends have been implemented.
• The Path Guidance method now supports not only diffuse but also shiny surfaces.
• Introduced "Node Tools" to extend Blender via nodes instead of scripts.
• Added interactive sliders for working with animation keys in the Action Graphics Editor.
• Updated the Human Base Mesh collection of human body models.
• Improved compatibility with the CY2023 specification.

Developers will continue supporting the 3.3 and 3.6 branches until 2024-2025 while improving the main 4.0 branch.

AI Service for Building Personalized AI Assistants from Microsoft

Microsoft has announced Copilot Studio, a new service for creating personalized virtual assistants.

With Copilot Studio, businesses and administrators can customize the Microsoft 365 Copilot Assistant to meet their needs, including adding their own data sets, automating processes, and creating fully personalized chatbots.

The Copilot Studio interface has visual tools and natural language controls to integrate new data sources such as SAP, Workday, and ServiceNow. This allows you to create chatbots to respond to user queries on the website or in press releases.

In addition, this service supports the integration of bots created in OpenAI ChatGPT. Copilot Studio will serve as a center for monitoring and analysis of virtual assistant usage.

Microsoft claims that Copilot Studio will make it easy and affordable for any company to build personalized AI assistants. This is part of Microsoft's larger strategy to expand the capabilities of the Copilot service.

Have a great month, and see you in the next is*hosting digest!