The parties whining in the Idaho Statesman are from the Boise/Nampa area. That is the crowded side of the state to avoid.
I expect the RealID to be implemented with a stack of blank plastic cards with embedded RFID. The outside will probably have an optically scannable bar code with biometric info such as a retinal scan or finger print. The RFID serial number associated with your physical license will get recorded in a database. The same database they are using right now, but augmented with another field for the RFID.
Did you get an 8 year DL or a 4 year?
As for California, it's another country now, isn't it?