I want to be able to have SVG files on a webserver, but realize that somey viewers don't yet support it. So I want an easy way to convert SVG files to PNG or JPG for these viewers on the server. Is there an easy way to do this -- I tried installing inkscape but found I needed at least half a dozen other packages to install. Should I just suck-it-up and install it or is there an easier solution.

Inkscape is the best solution for this imho. Yes, it requires a lot of libs, but once it works, you can convert via command line which is quite fast (no GUI is loaded) and powerful (lots of switches to control the conversion).

You didn't say what OS you are on. Doesn't Linux have a command-line converter?

Batik might be a good choice.

I think something like this was discussed on the dev list, try searching there.