Wow, that's big news. Now they just need a client that doesn't take days to download the block chain :| Seriously, I wonder if one of the bigger barriers to bitcoin adoption is the lame official application.
Electrum looks interesting, due to simplicity. What does it mean by using a remote server though? Do they just use a single block chain remotely and tell you what your balance is for keys <a-z> ?
However, for just spending coin, it's easier to use a hosted wallet like coinbase.com (a YC company).
You don't need to run an actual bitcoin node yourself unless you're doing something beyond just using bitcoin for spending. (e.g. holding large sums for long periods of time, mining, building some service, etc.)