Skybird your in a for a shock with BSD / Linux if you think MS's approach to security is too strong. Command line sessions in the shell and sudo goodness you have to look forward too.
And, no native Directx support for wintel subsims.
As for DRM and Vista, yeah DRM is a PITA. But atleast MS didnt do a linux community approach and basically rip off commercial companies IP by reverse engineering their stuff without permission and illegaly implementing functionality from it. MS partnered with those people like the HD-DVD patent pool owners and implemented it. MS had the choice - either dont implement those patent pool owners requirements or work with them.
Thats why Ubuntu (which I like the most of all linux distros) doesnt have this stuff installed by default cos its illegal for them to do so.
The argument that says additional security over winxpsp2 isnt needed is an argument from someone who has never had to deal with the business cost of downed xp workstations or the grief from family members asking for support to remove malware from their systems. Like MacOS and Linux, Vista isnt impervious to malware but it sure is defense in depth compared to winxpsp2.