Even though I primarily use SPSS (and yes, it is definitely easier), I actually wish we would move away from it as a field and just make everyone learn SAS or R. Yes, the learning curve is steeper but I actually think it helps people better understand their analyses and it opens a lot more doors. I keep telling myself I'm going to find time to sit down to REALLY learn SAS and R well enough I can abandon SPSS. Thus far, it hasn't happened and at my current state it is just much easier to pop into SPSS if I just need to do something basic.
SPSS has a lot of limitations and is usually at least a couple years behind SAS on implementing new things. If you get into more advanced techniques, you will quickly run into things that are difficult/impossible to do in SPSS. If all you plan on doing is ANOVA/Regression/etc. though it really doesn't matter. If you want to run a 3-level generalized linear mixed model....I'd look to SAS for that one.
Edit: Also agree with the above, even if you stick to SPSS definitely use the syntax. Even if you pull things up through the menu system and "paste" it rather than writing it yourself (I still do that for many things), it is incredibly helpful to have a record of what you did if it was in any way non-standard.