You didn't get ripped off. ;^)>
I am sure there will be people who will post you could have bought a PC cheaper... ignore them.
For what I spent, I could have built two PC's and had legit copies of XP (Vista, out of the gate, seems like a dog with its lack of existing app support), without monitors.
If need be, I can always go back. Just want a more user-friendly experience. BSD is robust and likely makes better use of the chipsets.
For instance, running a Lin session on a dual-boot PC (with Lin in ultimate charge, of course), your Linux apps are slightly slower, but will seldom, if ever, nuke your system.