Yeah Klangboks, for the most part dp and I have these great debates and honestly we do it for the fun of it. dp has been around alot more gear than I have been but my i.q. is 50 points higher than his...LMAO! Anyway, you started a very good thread, some cats would rather display their intellect and knowledge rather than seeing what you're really asking. I think it's cool that you want to learn mastering for your own purposes. All the programs named along this thread are really good starting tools, once you play around with mastering, you can decide which way to proceed on your own.
iZotope Ozone is very user friendly and a helluva lot cheaper than Waves so I would suggest you look into it. The presets are really awesome and will give you instant results. Once you play around with it and see how it works, you'll be able to make adjustments to enhance what they already give you. Good luck and keep asking questions, illmuzik is a great tool.