I work in IT and Real Player has given me many administrative nightmares over time. I initially voted before even reading the thread so I guess my vote on the poll would now change, but I still abhor RealPlayer. I absolutely refuse to install it on anything *EXCEPT* one of my Macs since there seems to be no pain in removing it from the machine. I thought things had changed when Real One came out - and I stopped cringing when I saw people launching it - till I tried it on one of my machines for a while and tried removing it. Oh, how I regressed into my "hater" mentality but it truly was a bad experience. I don't describe RealPlayer as any sort of Spyware - I knew those types of features were removed long ago and many other applications did this (even creative's drivers) - however, I do often find myself describing it as a virus. Your post was an interesting read and reminds me that no matter what you think about a company there are really just people behind it. All people are different - some better than others - and you are not near as abrasive as the company you work for
BTW - I felt that the die die die option on the poll was humorous as well - therefor I chose it before reading the thread