You shouldn't /have/ to. But I still do, at least for the important tools.

I've also stopped buying music digitally. I have a Zune pass, but the music I really care about, I buy on CD and rip.

I've utterly stopped buying audio books from Audible. While you /can/ burn CDs and so on, I've basically had it with that nonsense. The last audio book I bought, I had to "turn pirate" in order to listen to (the CD write borked, and I didn't have any apparent recourse other than to rip the audio stream directly).

I agree completely. The last two pieces of software I bought were both for a computer that doesn't even have a CD drive. But it still makes me feel better to have the files, in a way that more or less guarantees there's no prerequisite of having a functioning internet connection (implying their server will also need to work in order for the software to)

Having your software come in a box doesn't always mean anything. Take a look at Diablo III. Even though the particular software that you use may work if you have the disk, there's a good chance that the next version won't even have a physical option.

Unfortunately true. TBH The only two things I've needed/bought in the last couple years were an adobe suite (wanted to get one while I was still a student) and parallels, both for my macbook. I run linux on all of my other PCs and use free (as in proprietary but at no cost) or open source software pretty much exclusively so I'll be alright.

Buying software has just left a bad taste in my mouth most of the time in the last couple of years. Good thing I'm not a gamer I suppose.