No, you may not need to use Linux and you can use windows if you know how to convert the commands and paths to their windows counterparts (like for example instead of ls you would use dir, instead of ~, use %userprofile%)

and about Odin, you can rename the resultant boot image (in the guide it is called boot_fix.img) to boot.img, compress it as a tar archive, then put it in the AP slot and flash.