Sounds like all you needed to do was stop using IE. Firefox is good
I can show you 'case studies' of MS being cheaper/better/more secure to run than Linux - would you belive it?
*nix is good stuff, good for servers, bit of overkill for the casual user on a desktop, but as with just about any OS, it comes down to the admin - i run a FreeBSD box as a firewall/router and whatever else i need to and a unfirewalled XP box behind it with firefox as my browser, no problems, even a few months ago when i was still using IE no problems, no spyware - just dont click the 'yes install spyware on my computer' buttons and keep it patched and you should be right as well. The marjoity of users end up with spyware on thier PC because they don't know any beter - thats fine. But you shouldn't need to go to *nix to stop spyware, just change browsers and use some common sense.
As for being hacked by some group, not sure what you're into but real hackers wouldn't mess around with a normal individual, not worth thier time.. maybe you mean script kiddies? if so just stop doing whatever you're doing to attract thier attention (usually something to do with IRC). Get an old box from somewhere (usually can pick one up free from somewhere - i throw out old machines all the time) install *nix on it and use it as a router/firewall.
But its always a good experience using *nix as a desktop, most people can't hack it for long.