There are lots of programs out there that can do it, but most of them are just frontends for the same rip/encode procedure you mention. When you understand the modular nature of the *nix philosophy (one tool for one job, and a standardized interface that lets everything work together), it starts to make sense to do it this way. I wouldn't sweat it though, as it all gets done at about the same speed anyway.
Some good gui frontends are grip (gnome), kaudiocreator (kde), and ripperx, and there are more cli frontends than you can shake a stick at. most audio players such as xmms also have the ability to output to digital files. I prefer kaudiocreator myself, because it has the most comprehensive metatag editor of all the ones I've tried.
Here's a pretty comprehensive list of software equivilents for Windows programs in Linux:
http://www.linuxrsp.ru/win-lin-soft/table-eng.html
BTW: cdparanoia is the usual ripper program that underlies most converter programs. It might come in handy to learn how to use it directly from the command line. I've used it before to "rescue" cds that couldn't be copied otherwise. As for encoders, there are many different modules available, but lame is probably the most common for mp3. Many distros don't come with it by default due to patent licensing problems, but you can easily install it yourself. If you don't absolutely have to have mp3 for some reason (such as use on a dap) however, I suggest you try out ogg. It's a much better encoding format than mp3.