Concerning (a) from a newb perspective, google searches led me to try first installing the bitcoin-qt client, which yea, was a big turn off for me. I bought some BTC on gox then sent it to my bqt wallet address and was a bit shocked to not be able to see it for many days while the blockchain was being updated - 'where is my money??'. Also, the client sucked up all my cpu leaving me wondering what the heck was happening - software shouldn't be designed to 'go crazy' and burn up my laptop while hiding my money, so something must be wrong (I know why this happening now) - I imaging non-technical new users especially may have discouraging thoughts like this.

This is the first link to a 'bitcoin' search: http://bitcoin.org/ - the entrance to the rabbit hole for me. The 'choose-your-wallet' page, IMO, understates the time and resource issue. I recommend the bitcoin foundation to be a bit more explicit about these drawbacks and put a link to lightweight columns first in the list of wallets, stating clearly to start here if you are non-technical or want the 'quick start' option, instead of hiding this information in a popup that is accessed by hovering over an icon at the bottom of the page. It is a simple thing, but I think it will help to carry curious people further down the rabbit hole.

jd