“It’d cost me probably several hundred dollars using a windows machine.”
How do you figure that? As a long term Windows user, and who also has installed different versions of Linux, i can attest that I have never needed to buy any software for Windows, except a while back for DVD authoring, nor use the bloatware than comes with it, as far more safe, quality freeware exists for Windows than for Linux, from Bible programs to video encoding, and is far quicker to get and install than going thru Synaptic or the like, and being restricted to the pertinent repos, or having to compile code. And in the US., Linux users are probably are breaking the law (unless they buy them) to get the degree of video codecs you legally have under Windows.
Linux is good, but enough with the hype.
I don't get your comment about installing software on linux, though. I'm no expert by any means, but installing software on Ubuntu 9.10 is very simple. You can use Synaptic, but there's Ubuntu Software Center in the Applications directory that's even easier to use. There's thousands of programs available in the repos (although you don't have to stick to them), and I haven't compiled code in quite a while. I refuse to do so. I some program requires compilation, I'll look elsewhere, and can usually find something else similar that doesn't require it.