They also have for sale the ultimate helicopter flight simulator: http://www.edisposals.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/WFS/Disposals-Public-Site/en_US/-/GBP/ViewProductDetail-Start;pgid=MieqQ4wkQg8000ArvQ_8K1sp0000cOXI2HHn?ProductUUID=D7rAqBELzwMAAAEgOde5u7Ad&CatalogCategoryID=kjrAqBELD48AAAD_pWxpc4dz&JumpTo=OfferList. Image putting that in your basement!

Comes pre-installed with Skype, and it's trivial to set up any other SIP provider. A little on the expensive side perhaps, but you get an excellent Debian-based computer with it.

It's fine to offer constructive criticism, and you started out well. However it's difficult to find anything that could be construed as constructive in your second paragraph:

"some *person* for want of a better word"
"So retrograde it's laughable"
"What a waste of time"
"Being force-fed..."

If the was Microsoft, and you didn't know better, then perhaps it's fair to say you are being "force fed" this change. However, this is OSS, and nobody is forcing you to use Gnome Shell. You have options: stick with Gnome 2.x, use XFCE, KDE or any of the other window managers available. Just stop whinging about how you don't like it.

For anyone that doesn't live in one of the three countries in the world that persists with imperial units, 10lbs is about 4.5kg.

Why not? As you say, it's their operating system, not yours. If you only pay $15 for a cut-down version of the OS, why do you think you're entitled to more than you paid for?

+1 for IPCop. It acts as a centralised firewall and proxy server, so you don't need to install on multiple machines in your home. The content filters allow you to block access using a hosts file, and you may find the various other plugins useful (eg disabling internet access for your daughters machine after 11:00pm). Using a combination of this and AdBlock Plus, I rarely see any adverts.

If you can prevent SQL injection attacks, you're already one step ahead of the "experts" at Kaspersky :o) Change all of your database access code to use parameterised queries (which in your case means MySQLi) and you've eliminated one of the major points of attack.

The reason most people upgrade their OS is because their new computer has the upgraded OS pre-installed.