The article said that music would be kept even AFTER ceasing payment. With this in mind and the compatibility with multiple mp3 players, it seems like there may not be any form of DRM on the downloaded music either.

I don't know if you're over-exaggerating the harshness to new players in WoW, as I've never played it. But if you're not, EVE Online is the complete opposite.

In EVE, there are plenty of people, chat channels, and corporations [EVE's guilds essentially, if you don't know] who are more than happy to help out new players. Whether it's advice on skills, ship fitting recommendations, mission help, you name it. There's always an abundance of help for new players.

I don't know if this perhaps due to EVE's generally older age demographic or if WoW is the same in terms of help for players.

Perhaps people judge the music that comes out based on what's on the radio. I believe a decent amount of what's played on the radio is good, but there's still plenty of good music being produced by bands who are not played on the airwaves.
It's a shame really.

Why would 'private use' need a tax? What a load...

Try being a mac user.

Do the newer solid-state capacitors that motherboard makers (I know Gigabyte is at least) are using now suffer the same issues?

People mentioned monopolies...
But I'm sure most people would be wicked pissed to find out their computer came out with no functionality from a base-install.
I know if I was an average user, I would be.

If both media player and internet explorer are both freely available from Microsoft's site, why would they charge differently for each distribution?
If anything, I'd say the media player and IE-less versions should cost more for the added hassle of having to create an entirely new distribution.
It may not take much, but it would still take additional man-hours to create the new image and have a new lineup of discs pressed.

I believe I recall school systems getting HUGE discounts on Apple products.
Though I'm unsure if it's great enough that they're cheaper than other manufacturers.