I've just pulled an all-nighter yesterday (it was even a SCHOOL night) just so I could finish installing Ubuntu on my computer. It took bleeping forever, the installation kept having problems.
And Linux is very stable, unless your computer operates on a black and white screen or so, you'll have no trouble using it.
If you're not sure, try the
LiveCD. If you like it, you can install from there.
As for it being different, of course you'll need adjusting. You have been using Windows all your life. But you don't really have to tarball everything, most common programs have packages you can easily add.
I was kind of confused at first, but with continuous use and some help from BleepingComputer, I'm starting to using Ubuntu more than Windows
At least there's no system file errors!