Using core.autocrlf=false
stopped all the files from being marked updated as soon as I checked them out in my Visual Studio 2010 project. The other two members of the development team are also using Windows systems so a mixed environment didn't come into play, yet the default settings that came with the repository always marked all files as updated immediately after cloning.
I guess the bottom line is to find what CRLF setting works for your environment. Especially since in many other repositories on our Linux boxes setting autocrlf = true
produces better results.
20+ years later and we're still dealing with line ending disparities between OSes... sad.