I dislike Real too. Fortunately, it seems like it's almost gone from the world, so I don't have it.
Now it's mainly QuickTime vs. Windows Media.
I agree that some people exaggerate with the Microsoft-bashing.
SP2 will bring tabbed browsing/download manager to IE? I didn't know that, I thought it would only add a pop-up blocker...
But anyway, I don't like the idea of making a browser update available only in an OS service pack. That doesn't make much sense to me.