Debian is a version of Linux that has been around in its various forms since 1993. It has the reputation of being one of the most stable distributions you can get, and is used by millions of people worldwide. It comes in both server and desktop configurations so can be completely tailored to your every need.
Users moving from Windows will notice some differences apart from the cosmetic. The file system is different, there are no C: drives in Linux.
/ - The forward slash is the root directory. This is the base level, upon which everything else is built.
/bin – This file is where the core operating system files are kept. Bin means binary, in this case, system binaries. Think Windows folder.
/etc - System configuration files, like Windows\System32
/media - CD drives, USB devices and any other kinds of removable drives.
/usr/bin and /usr/local/bin – User level applications, think Program Files.
/home - Users home directory, like My Documents or C:\Users
To access anything other than /home, you will need to provide a password. While this may seem a pain for Windows users, it one of the systems most effective security features. By restricting what users can do, the system protects itself from harm. Malware wouldn’t work on Linux because it would never get permission to change files unless you provided it.
While Windows can be configured and maintained from the command line, it generally isn’t. It is built around the nice graphical interface, and for most users, dragging and dropping is the easiest way to get things done. While you can still do that in Debian, it is much more common to use the command line. It may not look as good, but it is far quicker and far more powerful once you get used to it. Debian has a graphical front end like Windows called GNOME, which will also allow you to drag and drop things, but if you want to learn about the system, you are going to have to tackle the command line.
For example, installing Firefox can be done in two ways. The graphical way would be to go to Applications, Synaptic Package Manager, find Firefox then Install. It doesn’t take long, but you can do it in seconds using the command line.
Open a Terminal and type su, enter your password, then type apt-get install firefox
Once installed, just type exit to leave root. That’s all there is to it. While this may be a simplistic example, it is the kind of thing you will be doing if you use a Debian system.
Debian is pretty complete out of the box. It, like most versions of Linux, includes many applications already installed to get you going right away. There is a web browser, email client, office software, media player etc already installed. You can however check what’s available using the Synaptic Package Manager and download from there. For every piece of software you have installed on Windows, there will be a free alternative in Linux. They won’t always be as pretty or have the same kind of support as their Windows counterparts, but they generally won’t need the support because they work right away.
It may not be as easy to get to grips with straight away as Ubuntu or Mint might be, but Debian is very, very stable. In theory, the only time you would ever have to reboot it would be if you added or changed hardware on your machine. Other than that it will run and run.
For more information and a more in-depth look at Debian, check out the Debian Wiki.