Well here's some good news...

I checked my PCLinuxOS software download tool (Synaptic) and blender is just a couple clicks away. 

And you know, I almost forgot how plagued Windows is.  There just aren't any threats to Linux right now so I don't even think about it. 

I could go on and on about the software you can get for Linux (like OpenOffice, The GIMP, Inkscape...) so feel free to PM me if you want to chat about it.  I hate to take an OT thread even farther off topic. 

Karlie