Interesting thread...
My take is that chains will at some point be necessary on a long grade like the op has. Some pavement marking will occur regardless of chain type. My preference is the Duo Grip style or 2 link ladder. The Duo Grip gives a smoother ride and is less prone to slipping when ground contact is between links like on the ladder style. There are lots of snow / ice conditions and chains.
I strongly agree that he is going to need chains at some point on that long driveway, especially with a north facing slope. Since he is planning on blowing snow, rather than plowing, he can probably get away without them in some conditions, but don't expect to have reliably good results through the whole winter.
My experience with DuoGrip chains has been the opposite of RjCorrazza. I'm running chains on my rear tires only: filled R4 tires. I work on gravel roads and off road quite a bit. The only time I'm on paved roads I'm strictly in "transport mode" (not plowing or snowblowing). I suspect the filled tires contribute to making the ride a bit harsher, and styles other than R4 will have different traction results. (Turf tires tend to do better with Ladder style chains than R4 or R1 tires, since a good bit of the cross links tend to fall between the treads of an R4 or R1 tire.)
I originally had 4 link ladder chains with v-bars. They worked fairly well getting up and down my gravel driveway. The ride was tolerable on hard surfaces, even at high speed. A 2 link spacing ladder chain would have provided a bit smoother ride, but I could deal with it with the 4 link spacing. Traction-wise, if all I were doing was going straight up and down my driveway (or other hills), these would have been fine. However, I was not happy with the poor lateral traction, which quickly became a factor when working in my woods.
I switched to DuoGrip with V-bars. This improved the lateral traction quite a bit, but the ride was incredibly rough on hard surfaces, even at moderate speeds. I thought I was going to shake my tractor or myself to pieces. If all of my work was off-road in the woods (slower speeds and/or softer surfaces), they'd have worked out very well. Running up and down my gravel driveway at anything more than walking speed was too rough. Since I have to run my tractor over the road several miles to another property fairly regularly, they were out of the question for me. I used them for less than 1/2 a winter season and took them off.
I ended up getting what I should have started with all along: the "Euro Style" OFA EKO 8 studded chains (other manufacturers make similar styles). These provide excellent traction, both straight ahead and lateral. They work great in the woods in logging applications, on my gravel drives, and I can run high speeds and still have a very smooth ride on that 5-mile run to the other property. For my purposes, they are the ultimate in tire chains. I'm extremely happy with them.
In the OP's situation, If the chains are primarily going to be used on his driveway, or off road on minimal side hills, 2 or 4 link ladder chains would probably get the job done - especially if he is running turf tires, since this style performs better on turfs than on R1 or R4 tires. If he wants a more versatile chain that works well across a wider variety of conditions and gives a smoother ride, go with the Euro-Style (aka "diamond pattern". This is also the style that is called "studded high strength alloy" or "reinforced net" on the
comparison table that someone linked earlier. In general you are concerned about marking pavement, you may want to go with the non-studded/non-Vbar versions: Studded are less likely to spin, but more likely to gouge if they do spin. Non-studded are less likely to damage, but the trade-off is not as good performance on glare ice: it will take a bit more finesse if you are working on those conditions without studded chains.
Plowing is much faster than snowblowing. However, plowing is also much more likely to cause you to spin tires. (you'll likely want front chains as well, if you are plowing.)
I assume you are looking at a front-mount snowblower. Snowblowing a 1/2 mile driveway with a rear mount gets to be a real pain-in-the-neck (literally). Plan on becoming good friends with your chiropractor if you are doing the drive with a rear-mount blower. When using a front-mount snowblower, it's important to have enough weight on the rear end to get good traction with your rear tires. Filled rear tires are a big help. An implement like a box blade or rear blade also helps ballast the tractor and gives you another tool if you need to scrape a stubborn area (they can be very handy to remove ice, once the sun has loosened the ice's bond with your pavement.)