Hmm... so the software crackers out there will have to take a back seat to all the EE's who will find a way to litterally hack up the hardware to ignore the DRM...

It happens with game consoles... why not with PCs?

I just find it a bit depressing that I'm going to have to install mod chips on my PCs so I can decide with which media players I want to watch/listen to which media, etc.

Pretty soon you'll need to install a mod chip on any machine that comes with the "built/designed for <insert m$ OS here>" sticker on the front of the tower just to install another OS.

They can say... "well, it was right on the front of the box! We didn't force you to use our operating system... you should have known when you bought it!"