If you do decide to try Linux, my recommendation is to download and try a few distributions on live cds (there's no need to install anything at this point) and see if there is one that really takes your fancy.

A lot of people just recommend their favourite (commonly Ubuntu) but I'm not sure that leads to the best solution for an individual. Ubuntu for example is not for me.

Popular distributions include Ubuntu, OpenSuse (with the KDE desktop, this is my favourite), Mint and Fedora.