One stereotype that leaps to my mind is drug companies funding their research into cures for horrible diseases by selling you speed for your kids' "ADHD". It's yucky, but am I wrong that drug companies do just fine advancing chemical engineering without government help?

No, they pay nothing for XP if they already have a license for it, which is what they'll have if they're buying a new computer to replace an old one.

You and your parent both bring up the point that Apple is a lesser evil in the DRM world, with Microsoft and Sony being guilty of employing much more intrusive DRM schemes.

The question in the headline, will people boycott Apple over DRM, then, appears to be the wrong one.

It's clear that people don't boycott, but they do pick the lesser evil. That means that a much better question is, "Will MS or Sony be able to come up with an iTunes alternative that is DRMless enough to win the popular vote?"

Microsoft supposedly has seen the error of its strong focus on DRM. Perhaps they'll get it though their heads that they can BEAT Apple by finding a way to just sell mp3s/mpegs to us at a reasonable price?

Venture capitalism is extremely high risk, so it stands to reason that a lot of the people willing to take such risks are dumb. And of course there are plenty of people who know about this dumbness, and exploit it. Pitch some ridiculous idea, run a few rounds of VC, build up a small business around it, take a HUGE salary, then either sell the company or abandon ship when the company fails.

But just in case you don't know:

http://www.giantfood.com/peapod/
http://shop.safeway.com/offers/swy/default6.asp?PRMX_GOOG_DELIVER_0703

It doesn't seem terribly unreasonable to me that a company in the mid 90s could start a site called meat.com and make deals with tons of local grocery stores to deliver meat/groceries.