The fact that it has offline mode makes it less bad than I thought it was, actually. Not that I'm going to use steam now all of a sudden.. Impulse and GOG fulfill my gaming needs just fine =)

the buzz tends to depend on where you read. Any thread mentioning steam will get torn to threads around here. But if you go to most other games sites it has a pretty positive buzz, with many people often complaining if a game isn't available on steam, as they don't want to buy it on retail or any other service.
That said, steam's customer service appears to be going downhill recently, from internet reports. I've not had any trouble yet though (other than being a tad slow).

Well, while Im at it, I might as well bump it

I saw somewhere that SOME games on Steam can run perfectly fine without Steam's client by simply running the application in the steamapps folder or something.

I just had Steam Tech support reply on a Sunday!
Probably because the question was about using a credit card internationally, so their reply means they can get money from me....

I've never really had a problem with Steam, although for a while there a few months ago they were being VERY tardy in delivering game updates/patches to 3rd party games.
Not to mention they occasionally have some awesomely good weekend deals and other sales on new/fairly new(and good/decent) games
As to running games w/o steam client, I believe that it depends upon the game, as the few that I tried it insisted on loading up the Steam client anyways, although I cannot remember if it was a Valve game or a 3rd party game...

Here are a few of my thoughts. I know this is about Steam and Impulse but it covers a larger picture as well.
1. Trying to limit or relegate discussion of Steam, Impulse, or DRM of any ilk to one thread is not going to work.
GOG team are the moderators of the boards and solely have say what can and cannot take place.
2. To say, this is the only place to vent (no pun intended) about Steam or anything else and this type of discussion has no bearing on a game is not true.
If DRM is part of a game, then it should be part of the overall discussion of the game, since it has bearing on people's view of the game and is factor to purchase or not to start with, and impacts their enjoyment of the game.
It would be like saying a game has blatant censorship in it, but you cannot mention it as the game is too fun and talking about it ruins the discussion. Plus, we made a thread for all censorship talk and it is limited to that one thread.
GOG team would have this right but no one else.
3. This site and ALL their games are dedicated to one main goal, No DRM in their Good Old Games. To say DRM talk is not allowed or acceptable on such a board in relation to games that carry DRM is silly.

This site and ALL their games are dedicated to one main goal, No DRM in their Good Old Games.
Actually, I think you'll find the main goal is being able to re-release these games so that they run on modern system. The no DRM thing is a just a secondary feature, it's not *that* important a goal, just a selling feature for a small minority.

Even publishers that have previously used horrible DRM to "protect" their "interests" have finally given up slowly and are trying to cater to those few with a serious hatred of any kind of DRM (like some people on this forum). I really don't mind DRM all that much because it's inevitable, but I do know where the line is to be drawn when there is a difference between protecting a game from pirates and just being really anal about everything. Take Steam, for example. I do like Steam, and I intend to buy from Steam more and more in the future because it is a good service, minus the support and the forums and the overpriced currencies in several regions, and it deserves to stay in business (others will disagree).

DRM can compound already existing problems. Take Clear Sky for instance. I didn't choose not to buy it because it had activation limited DRM (TAGES, urgh). I didn't choose not to buy it because it was unfinished and needed patching up to the eyeballs. I chose not to buy it because the two issues combined meant I was left with either a cracked and broken game or a fixed rental copy.
You've also got DRM that seriously affects compatibility. For instance there have been games that I've been able to get running on Windows 7 simply by removing the DRM (again, TAGES). Disc checks may seem pretty mild and I typically don't have a problem with them... until I have a problem with them.
As for Steam, sometimes you can find things that are cheaper than anywhere else through its weekend deals (the vast majority of the titles I have bought through the service were for a fraction of their usual price). But it's all to obvious that the service has sold out to the whim of publishers.

why? We'd finally gotten a break from all the steam bashing!

as far as censor ship goes, I'd like to see a publisher hand out dark sunglasses and ear muffs in their boxes and be allowed to release their games however they please.
If you don't like it, just put your glasses and ear muffs on and nobody, nobody will bother you.

impulse won't rob access to your games. It's not a gatekeeper.

Here's the only difference in experience I've had between Impulse and Steam.
When that one gaming mag was doing the promo for its readers that others got in on, I did it three times. Once I got Speedball 2 (registered on Steam), once I got Dark Messiah (also registered on Steam), and once I got Sins of a Solar Empire (registered on Impulse).
Valve didn't care. Those games are still on my games list (although I did end up getting another copy of Dark Messiah due to a weekend deal package). Stardock deactivated my copy of Sins, effectively preventing me from playing it (it's primarily an online game, and without patches I cannot play it online).
So, in short, Valve has treated me better than Stardock has. And while I will continue to buy it where prices are cheapest, if the prices are the same, I will buy it at Steam over Impulse.