Quote - I was hesitating on Linux because of Poser and Carrara. Now that Carrara is no longer an option, I'm switching to Blender, but I can't work without Poser.

That's pretty much my position.  I've been using Blender on my windows machine for a while now anyway, and Wings3D, both of which are a) available in Linux and b) free!!

Blender really takes a bit of getting used to - at first the interface will drive you really, really crazy.  But if you stick with it, you'll find that what all the Blender users say is true:  Once you get used to it, you can really zoom along.

As for anyone wanting to switch to Linux - I would encourage them but offer a bit of warning: Don't believe it when people tell you that it's just like Windows, but better, and that there's equivalent software for anything you can get on a MS system, and that everything just works out of the box.  If you believe that hype, you could face frustration.

It can take a bit of effort to get a system going, but I've personally found Ubuntu linux to be the easiest and most painless I've tried. 

Plus it's free - If you can't download a disk, you can even ask and they'll post you one, gratis!

Also they have a HECK of a user community.  I'm in lots of forums all over the web, and the Ubuntu community are the most friendly and helpful people I've found since..  well, since Renderosity!