To confuse you more, not everyone thinks you need to shoot raw, that regular old JPEG is just fine for most anything.
You might want to look this up on Ken Rockwell's site, see what he says about it. It is another perspective. There is controversy about this, the need for raw, so it would be good for you to check it out and see what you think.
My own suggestion is to get as good as you can with the simple and pretty effective iPhoto, maybe Elements for perspective control if you shoot architecture.
Start out by concentrating on the photos, maybe even with another lens as was suggested, and max out your actual photo taking techniques rather than sitting in front of a computer all night playing with the post-production part of it.
I miss raw mostly for dealing with the easy to blow highlights in digital photography, but I am better at avoiding that now. Play with how you expose your photos until you get that down.
Now, if I was a commercial photographer, say doing weddings, and I needed as much protection as possible to make sure my one-chance, career-dependent photos had the best chance possible to come out nicely, even if I screwed up or there was some sort of equipment problem, then I would shoot raw. It is certainly worth staying up all night to salvage those photos!