At 170 dpi in the final print - there's really not much detail. Carefully increasing resolution in software (manufacturing data) gives more sharpness but no more detail. Certain colors and surfaces take on a "plastic" look (to me). The fun thing about photos is the amount of detail you can get when compared to other graphic arts such as painting or print making. Rezzed up digital doesn't have detail - but it will have sharpness.
You don't get that tactile feel with a small sensor at 5-6 megapixels. Sharpness yes, detail no. So many people get excited about the sharpness that they just blow off (or excuse) the lack of detail. In 8x10 prints the results look good. Take that up to 12x15 and the images start falling apart. You really need a minimum of 240 dpi. If you can get 300 dpi - the prints look even better. So, take the long side of the image sensor (pixels) and divide it out over the long side of the print - you'll see rather quickly how all those megapixels get stretched out over the print.
I haven't played with the new 8 megapixel "prosumer" cameras, but the tests I have seen show a lot of noise when the ISO is boosted much over 200.
As for image manipulation, editing, sizing, etc., there are several programs that can do that, but the king of the hill, and still best, is Photoshop. In my opinion, although it is expensive, there is no substitute for the flexibility and capability of the program. There are a ton of plug-ins for it (small add-on programs) that enhance and extend the capabilities. I use FocalBlade for sharpening and Neat Image for noise reduction. Both are inexpensive and really help with the final image.
You can learn Photoshop by buying books and trial and error. Once you understand the basic capabilities, you can pretty much get the final image you want by looking up certain functions in books. Scott Kelby's books are really good as he collects tips and tricks from other Photoshop experts and puts them into his books in an easily accessible manner. Start with "The Photoshop Book for Digital Photographers." This will give you a lot to look at and learn about Photoshop. My advice is to buy it BEFORE you commit to digital photography to see if a computer "lightroom" is amenable to your personality and working style.
Then you get to printing. Dye based printers make nice prints on glossy paper that fade rather rapidly unless oversprayed with a protectorant. Pigment base printers (like the Epson 2200, 4000, 7600, 9600) make archival prints on matte paper that look fine. Put pigment ink on glossy paper and you get "gloss differential." Heavily inked areas look matte from the pigment ink sitting on the surface while other areas of the print look glossy. There aren't enough "U's" in the word ugly to describe the look.
Lastly, if you don't have your system calibrated/profiled - you won't get consistent results. This means you have to calibrate your monitor and profile the printer. Once you do that, you will truly have WYSIWYG. Look at Monaco "Easy Color," or the ColorVision products to see the hardware/software you need for calibration and profiling.
If you want to do black and white, that's a whole different bag-o-worms. If you switch out the inks to a monochrome inkset you can get stunning results. If you want to print B+W with a standard color inkset, you need a raster image proccesor (RIP) software program like ImagePrint from ColorByte. Manufacturer printer drivers are notoriously bad at ink management for black and white printing. ImagePrint has a specific B&W ink management portion to make prints with the color inkset. As a side benefit, the ImagePrint RIP has a lot of built-in paper profiles saving you the trouble of having to profile the printer.
Change over to digital - sure, just pull out your wallet & start buying things. You'll have to realize that if you want to make the prints yourself, there's a whole lot more to it than just owning a computer and printer.