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If you want to try Linux, there is a very easy way to do it. You can download LiveCD's of just about every flavor out there to test how your hardware will react. Simply download the ISO image, burn to CD being sure to use the ISO image tool in your CD burning suite, and you now have a bootable Linux CD that will allow you to boot up in Linux without making any changes to your computer. My favorite flavors are Knoppix, Gentoo, and Ubuntu, but your mileage may vary. For downloading the ISO images, you can go to:

www.knoppix.org
www.gentoo.org
www.ubuntu.com

I opted for Knoppix on my laptop to dual boot with XP Pro. I can boot into XP Pro, Sever 2003, or any of the above three flavors of Linux on my desktop machine.

I highly suggest the above scheme of using both XP and Linux for the time being. That way, you can test out software suites, and make sure you can operate in Linux as well as you can in XP. If you get into a tight spot, you can just switch back over to XP. When the time comes that you are confident that Linux is serving 100% of your needs, you can then be confident that a switch-over to Linux is a good move, and won't give you any headaches.

I like XP. I don't even really have any disdain for MS, but these liscensing schemes are getting ridiculous. Charging me twice the money for their latest OS, and cutting my usability down to one transfer is beyond arrogance. Luckily I've seen MS trending this way, and I've been boning up on Linux for about 18 mos now. I can say confidently that Vista will probably never enter my household, and it won't cause me a moments trouble.