Since I run linux, it was a bit of a gamble buying my first set of maps ($99 a pop at the time), but I found I was able to run this program under Wine (the windows emulator that runs under linux). Also, you may be able to find used or reduced price copies by hunting around online in places like Amazon Marketplace.
I have had terrible luck with wine. For several years it was totally and hopelessly unreliable, first working, then breaking with new releases (and changes to my computer hardware). On top of this, when I submited Wine bug reports, I get rudely abused by certain parties, and it wasn't long before I had had enough. Things seem to have settled down now, and I suppose in a sense I should thank them since these difficulties are in part what prompted me to write gtopo!
Here is a link to my notes on running TOPO! via wine under linux:
Along the way, I have purchased a number of sets (they are sold by the state) as part of the NGS TOPO! series. TOPO! is the name of their proprietary software that they ship with the maps. In the order in which I acquired them, I have:
It took about 15G of disk space to keep the files for the first three of these states on my hard drive, now that I have added Utah and New Mexico, it takes a bit over 22G to hold my collection. Since I have a 250G disk, with 150G free, this is absolutely no skin off of my nose.
Tom's Computer Info / [email protected]