Wow, thanks to everyone who participated in the poll and gave so many well-thought out responses. I thrive on discussion, and even debate, when it's friendly and based on reasons.
Thanks for the reminder about the live CD trial for Ubuntu. I had actually already tried that before I posted, and knew my hardware was compatible, which was nice.
My main reason for leaning towards Ubuntu over other linux distros is that the University I work for actually offers limited tech support for it through the IT dept--though I have never actually used their tech support and doubt its very good, so I'm not sure why I'm letting that guide me too much. The other consideration is that it seems to have the most active online community, which is where I likely would go for help when faced with a real problem -- aren't online communities great?
I know lots of people swear by macs, but I'm at a complete loss to explain why. They're more expensive, and offer less of what I like. I frequently end up using macs on campus such as in the library. I find that they are consistently slower than the Windows machines of the same age. They seem to appeal to the least common denominator in user. And the only viruses I've ever gotten have been while using the macs on campus. Yes, I realize my experience may be atypical, but I've never actually heard what their alleged advantages are. I have to admit I do think people get swayed by their aesthetics.
But in any case, even if I wanted a mac, right now, budget considerations rule it out.
Budget also is one of my reasons for wanting to move away from Windows.... the constant upgrades are soooo tiresome. And while more software is available for windows than anything else, I believe more free/open source software is available for linux, which suits me philosophically.
I would actually be kinda serious about trying Free BSD. My brother (an award winning programmer) swears by it. Unfortunately, he lives across the country.
Anyway, yesterday I partitioned the harddrive on my work computer and set up to dual boot Ubuntu. It was extremely easy to install... much easier than any experience I've ever had setting up an operating system. Installing software through Synaptic seems pretty easy too. I use LaTeX for word-processor, and I installed LiveTeX and Kile... and
wow, I love Kile. I think it might be possible to get that working on a Windows machine, but I bet it would be trickier.
Beyond that I didn't have much time to "play", since well, I was at work and had work to do. But I'll keep experimenting. At the moment I'm not hurting for disc space so I'll probably keep dual-booting until I have a good reason not to.