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Three years ago today we flipped the switch on at opensource.com. Technically, we removed the htaccess file to allow anyone to access the site. Since that point, we've been steadily providing stories that highlight how open source is having a positive impact on the world and building a community around that mission.

Last week I pointed out how Google is contributing a lot to Coreboot since they are enjoying this open-source BIOS/UEFI because they can ship it on Chrome OS devices for allowing very fast boot times, great customization possibilities, and good security with having full source access. In this article are some development statistics surrounding Coreboot to show the most prolific contributors, the pace of development, and other traits for this open-source project formerly known as LinuxBIOS.

Cinnarch is a desktop Linux distribution based on Arch Linux and using the Cinnamon as the default and only supported desktop environment. Like Arch, it follows a rolling-release development model.

Each year we invite our readers to share their thoughts with us about opensource.com in our annual reader survey. This is our fourth year offering the survey and we encourage you to help us better understand what works, what doesn't, what you would like to see more of, and how we can continue to involve you in our community.

One of the more difficult issues the author of a self-published book faces is whether to pay others to help promote their book. Is it money well spent, or just dollars down the loo?

This tutorial explains the installation of a Samba fileserver on Fedora 18 and how to configure it to share files over the SMB protocol as well as how to add users. Samba is configured as a standalone server, not as a domain controller. In the resulting setup, every user has his own home directory accessible via the SMB protocol and all users have a shared directory with read-/write access.

Valve has released next title of the company, after Team Fortress 2, on Steam for Linux - Half-Life. The first part of the series appeared in 1998, it won over 50 Game of the Year awards and is undoubtedly one of the most successful video games of all time.

The Microsoft translator provides an API that you can use for automated translation. It currently supports about 39 languages. True to the nature of open source I found that someone had already written a python wrapper to the API. I extended the wrapper to use the requests and pofile packages.

This week, an IT pro confronts his cloud fears, why the programming profession isn't getting replaced by robots and soft skills every IT pro should know.

I think that’s more power than any other device of its type that I’ve come across. With it, you can turn any TV with the right connectivity into an Android device or TV.

Designed to fit somewhere between Fedora and Ubuntu, this fork of Fedora is a fully functional and easy to use distribution

So Half-Life is now Beta and with it came a little suprise, Counter Strike 1.6 beta is there also!

The WordPress developers have announced a maintenance update to the popular open source blogging software. WordPress 3.5.1 fixes 37 bugs and addresses three security issues, including two cross-site scripting vulnerabilities. Users running WordPress on IIS might run into a problem that prevents the upgrade; the developers have prepared documentation to help users work around this problem.

Netrunner 'Dryland' 12.12.1 has been released. KDE updated to 4.9.4 from Kubuntu backports; Firefox updated to 18; VLC updated to 2.0.5; Tomahawk new version 0.6; WINE updated to 1.5.22; Samba Mounter updated to 0.3.1; Webaccounts updated 0.3; Veromixer installed; Runners-ID upgraded from 1 to 5 GB free cloud space; many more fixed issues and improvements. The version is based on Kubuntu 12.10 and has the following features: GNU/Linux OS kernel 3.5; Firefox 18 with KDE integration; Thunderbird 17.0.1; LibreOffice 3.6.2; Skype 4.1; GIMP 2.8; Krita, Gwenview, Kdenlive, Telepathy Messenger, Samba Mounter (easy NAS setup), Webaccounts (social accounts integration), Runners-ID (free and libre cloud storage and music streaming), Muon Discover, VirtualBox.

The YouTube "dancing baby" takedown case, made Internet-famous by lawyers at the Electronic Frontier Foundation back in 2007, looks like it will actually go to a jury about six years after it was filed.

US District Judge Jeremy Fogel ruled today [PDF] that neither Universal Music Group, which asked for this video of a dancing toddler to be taken off YouTube, nor EFF, which represented the child's mother, will win their case on summary judgment. Today's order, which responds to issues raised at an October hearing, means the case will have to proceed to a jury trial if there's no settlement.

FTP is a service known to almost anyone who works with Internet on daily basis. This guide will describe in detail how to setup an FTP server on Ubuntu Linux in simple to follow steps. We will show how to setup an FTP server in normal and stand-alone mode. We will also provide some security tips for your new FTP setup. This guide will use lightweight and efficient FTP server vsFTPd, which is designed to withstand on servers with high load.

California Attorney General Kamala Harris accused two foreign apparel makers in lawsuits of gaining an unfair competitive advantage over American companies by using pirated software in clothing production. Harris, in a state court complaint filed yesterday in Los Angeles, said Pratibha Syntex Ltd. of India and Ningbo Beyond Home Textile Co. Ltd. of China violated California’s unfair competition law by failing to pay licensing fees for software manufactured by companies including Microsoft Corp., Adobe Systems Inc. and Symantec Corp. The unpaid fees gave Pratibha Syntex and Ningbo Beyond Home Textile a “significant cost advantage in the low-margin business of apparel manufacturing,” Harris said in an e-mailed statement. The suits target companies whose “unlawful actions are eroding California’s garment industry and placing California companies who legally pay for computer software at a disadvantage.”

Apple unlikely to get cross over this compiler The free RoboVM, timidly launched as version 0.0.1, claims to bridge Java code into Objective C - including the native iOS Cocoa Touch APIs - providing greater portability to mobile apps.…

Devs don't like Oracle's direction, prefer more open MariaDB The developers of Fedora Linux are pondering a slap in the face for Oracle by picking MariaDB as the database for the forthcoming Fedora 19.…

In 1997, at the height of his PC-fueled bravado, Dell CEO Michael Dell said publicly that Apple, then in decline, should be dissolved. "I'd shut it down and give the money back to shareholders." Now Apple sits near the pinnacle of the industry, and Dell is looking at giving his company's stockholders their money back—and taking the company private. And it looks like Microsoft is going to give him a hand with that.