Here in Europe it is 8Eur/month for basic package, 10 Eur/month for standard package with HD and 2 devices used to watch simultaneously, 12Eur/month for premium package with 4k content on 4 devices at the same time. All that for a small fraction of content available in USA. Roughly 200 series and 550 movies available in countries around here, for example.

If you use VPN, you can watch 1157 shows and 4593 movies available in USA. See http://www.finder.com/global-n... for more numbers and http://www.finder.com.au/inter... for complete lists. The links are from summary of article about Netflix published here yesterday.
Mind you, even some programs produced by Netflix are missing, such as House of cards, because our local TV stations have recently purchased broadcasting rights

I am surprised that VPN and DNS tricks are used only by a small fraction of customers.

Just change the release name in your /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list file, apt-get update, apt-get dist-upgrade, and then apt-get autoremove

Clearly Linux is ready for the desktop.
Isn't Mint intended to be easy for the "average user"?

Yes, it is ready for the desktop.
You can, of course, use the above commands in the terminal. That is the easiest way if you need to write the steps in a post or do a support over a phone.
You can also
- click on the "updates" icon in a right edge of the task bar. There is an icon indicating whether there are updates available.
- in the Update Manager go to the Edit menu
- check item "Update to 17.3" and let the Update Manager do its thing. You will be asked for password. Once.

I have used the above steps to update from 17.1 to 17.2

Install Kindle for PC. The unofficial Calibre plugin developed by "apprentice Alf" can get the key from the Kindle for PC when the book is first opened on the Kindle for PC.

PocketBook uses FBReader as a default reading app. Plus, you can install Coolreader.
Firmware isn't what it used to be in earlier models but PocketBooks are still pretty capable devices. The new generation of firmware programmers didn't manage to screw up [yet] all the cool features built into the legendary models, such as PocketBook 360Â.
They support hierarchical directories in library, *lots* of configuration options for reading, there is limited number of third-party apps, such as Coolreader, ftp server [so you can rummage inside the filesytem and send in books without cable], terminal emulator, a few simple games and even Vim text editor.

When I see drill bit sizes defined like 3/64" I always say ... WTF?
When I see 1.2mm I know exactly how big it is.

No. Kilogram isn't based on a chunk of metal. A chunk of metal was just a convenient way of checking your etalons.

First they defined a meter. It is based on the length of the line from equator to the pole going through Paris. They measured the line and divided it by 10 million.
Since it is difficult to calibrate your 1m etalon by lying a ten million of them in a row, they made a standard example in a form of metal rod.

Then they defined the Kilogram. They took a liter of pure water, with the defined temperature and ambient pressure and got the first Kilogram.
Oh ... liter ... it is one thousandth of a cubic meter. A cube with side 1decimeter.
Remember, that was in 1790, so since then our need for precision changed somewhat and now we need to have those units defined in a more precise way.

Russia? Host your files in Iran.
They are not very likely to respond to a take-down request or a police demand for identification of owner. Especially when such request comes from USA or EU country ;-)

Yes, there are plenty of alternatives.
Yes, you can sideload apps.
Yes, there are Moon+ Reader and FBReader and a dozen of other e-book apps available in Amazon Appstore (when viewed from my cheapo generic Android phone that I use as a mini-tablet and backup e-book reader (more portable than my e-ink device)). I haven't found Coolreader - my preferred e-book reading app.

I can't understand what the problem is here.
Simply install alternative reader and use that instead of the default Kindle reader for your sideloaded books. Kindle reader is much less configurable than other free e-book reading apps.

Have a look at the recent versions of FreeCAD.
I was very surprised how much progress they have made since I have last looked at the project.

- I prefer to use Linux.
- I got used to being able to set up my desktop environment, and other things the way I like them.
- I like to use some programs that do not run [well] under Windows, such as Krusader, K3b, ...
- I can install the vast majority of programs I want hassle-free from packages provided by the distribution I use. There is no need to search for shareware and I do not have to worry that somebody has packed in some undesired feature, or unwanted extra with a program.
- I was very frustrated by the Metro interface that was rammed down our collective throats. I have been using Windows from version 3.0 and before that I was using DOS programs. So I know a thing or two, and I do not hesitate to embrace things that are different. Yet, I couldn't get used to Windows 8.0 even after several weeks of use.
- I do not want to run antivirus and/or be worried that somebody is going to encrypt my disk and ask for ransom or hijack my computer.

This was a new version of chipset that wasn't used before and I knew that there would be driver available before long. In the meanwhile somebody discovered that you can use older driver with some tweaked parameters. All Linux distributions that came out after the notebook came to market did contain proper driver and everything works out-of-the-box after default install.

The notebook (that I am using to write this post) came with Windows 8 pre-installed.
I had to piss against the wind for two weeks until I discovered how to persuade Linux driver for WiFi and wired Ethernet to run on a new version of chipset used on this notebook. After a few months the driver was part of the standard kernel.
So, some of us aren't cheapskates, we just want to run Linux. And we are willing to make the extra effort of installing it over OEM pre-installed Windows.

Meh ...
Windows 3.11, on the other hand, THAT was something ... ;-)

You have to work really hard to piss the general public off enough to take the hassle of: learning about ways to block adds, implementing add blocking, using add blocking.
Joe Public (or my Mother) is not your typical Slashdot crowd. They want just switch on the computer and use it to browse the web. They do not even want to know what is the name of the program they use, let alone the deep magic of add blocking. And it is difficult to incite them to change *anything*. Advertisement specialists worked very hard, using very obnoxious, audio AND video noisy, pop-over, pop-under, pretending-to-be-system-dialog, memory and processor hogging, data-heavy adds. In many cases they prevent people from reading the article at all and often they eat bandwidth like there is no tomorrow. So our dear Joe Public has no choice but to use add blocker.