As I said in the Getting OFF Microsoft Windows (M$-win) article/post, in order to transtition away from M$, it is probably wise to start by working in the same apps on your M$ station as you will on your *nix station.
Based on Microsoft Windows; apps & history I prefer to use the ones below (install syntax for debian is in shell compatible format below). I recommend trying this out a few times on a VirtualBox.
At this point, we just need to pretty things up a bit by setting up look & feel and the taskbar