Hi, Rassilon!
I left Windows a long time ago (win95) in a rage of frustration, and I have only had wonderful experiences with Linux and its various flavors (distros) from then on. I feel I'm more empowered this way, as you can control each and every bit of your system...
There is a downside, however: what if you don't want that level of control? Well, that happened to me not long ago. I was using Debian (Potato) and found that I spent more time administering and tinkering in general that doing actual work. Don't get me wrong, Debian is *the cleanest* distro out there, with a fantastic number of packages available and wonderful community based support, but it was a bit too rigid for me. I changed over to Mandrake (8.1), perhaps not as rock-solid (99.9% as opposed to 99.999999...% of Debian) but more manageable in a lot of respects.
I have tested lots of versions of Redhat, Debian and Mandrake, and I've found this one to be the easiest one on newbies. Perhaps you'd like to give it a spin, but anyway be prepared to learn (a lot). No transition is painless.
The only gripe with Linux so far is the lack of acceptable 3D modeling software. Does anyone know of a good 3D modeler able to output 3ds files for Linux? I've looked everywhere with no luck. For every other task, there are from good replacements to outright superior alternatives to Windows apps, most of the time with reasonable levels of compatibility built in. And for the support, don't fear... Linux apps (and Linux itself) has the better support available: the community. We are out there in the hundred of thousands, and willing to help. Just be sure to RTFM (or make a honest try, at least) before asking

...
Last time I booted into Windows was two years ago, and my system has wonderful uptimes (in fact, I recall just a hard reset in the last year, due to a documented instability with my new GeForce3 drivers and my motherboard which I was able to solve right away just by editing a text file and copying a value...) If my web site is offline, its always due to routing difficulties of my ISP, or a power outage while I'm not at home -we have had some lately-.
I encourage you to try. You might like it...
Best regards.
Bruckner