This is the History window. What I'm talking about is actually a separate window just for downloads that would be created whenever a new download starts, and would go away once the download(s) finished (depending on if you set it to do so).

Starting somewhere around version 21 of Firefox, they turned off the "downloads" window and took the ability to turn it on/off out of the options. In order to turn something on that had been in Firefox since it was called Phoenix, you had to go into about:config and change "browser.download.useToolkitUI" to true. Now for some reason, it appears to me that Firefox v26 has completely removed the download window altogether. I cannot for the life of me get the old downloads window back. Maybe I'm just blind/dumb, but I can't imagine why Mozilla continues to make changes like this.

This is the second time in two days I've seen "upshot" incorrectly used in an article summary. Why is this happening? Stop it.

My main OS was Windows XP. I started messing around with Damn Small Linux on a bootable CD-R. I didn't do it for any other reason other than curiosity. It was really intriguing to me that I could boot into a functional operating system with a bunch of decent tools, without having to install anything. I think I also messed around with Puppy Linux, I can't recall. From there, my interest in Linux increased and I went on to try a full distro, Ubuntu (I think it was version 6). Again, it was all about curiosity, and I was just playing around with it instead of using it as a replacement for Windows.

Sometime in 2009 I received an old IBM Thinkpad T30 for free from a friend, and decided I would only install Linux on it, instead of any flavor of Windows. I decided to go with Xubuntu, because after shortly messing around with Gnome, KDE, and XFCE, I decided XFCE was best suited to my preferences. I used Xubuntu for a couple years, and greatly enjoyed the experience.

In 2011 I decided to try some different distros, just to see what else was out there. I shortly tried Fedora and OpenSUSE, and decided I didn't really like them. Then I tried Mint, and fell in love. Mint, on the surface at least, seems to have much better driver support than any distro I had used previously. Maybe it's because they use some "non-free" / "closed" software or whatever, but honestly, the philosophy doesn't really matter to me as a user. Everything just seems to work, and the update manager works great as well. It comes packaged with an awesome selection of software from the get go, and configuration of any type was really minimal. I still use Mint 10 on my laptop to this day. It hasn't replaced Windows 7 on my desktop, but it honestly would, if I could play all of my games.

Mint, for me, was the first Linux distro that had support for all of my hardware on all my PC's right at the start. No need to go searching through repositories or finding some weird hacks online. Wireless, printers, etc, it all just works, whereas it never did without jumping through hoops on the other distros I've tried. It also has a great selection of pre-installed software, in my opinion. The level of usability for a Linux newbie like myself was far higher than that of even Ubuntu. It also required much less setup and tweaking than any other distro I had used before.

My only issue so far is that I've been unable to figure out how to switch to a different window manager. It's not that big of a deal because I like Gnome, but on some of my older PC's I'd like to use a more lightweight wm like Fluxbox or something.

I use this addon, and it works great.

I don't understand why they would do this. It's not like Xbox LIVE was free for those original Xbox games; you still have to pay for it. Not only that, but they've been selling downloadable original Xbox games on the XBL Market Place... and now you wont be able to play them online? How is this logical in any way? I have an Xbox 360 and still play a few original Xbox titles on it, but only multiplayer on LIVE. I guess that will no longer be possible, and that secures me never buying an original Xbox title on their LIVE marketplace.

2df is just a bloated front-end lobby system for nFBA. It's not necessary to play games with people.

I agree 100%. I've always had trouble finding a decent keyboard fitting those requirements. Luckily, the Das Keyboard II has the perfect layout for me.