debian newbie seeks help

[rod peters]

Hooray! I finally got my debian installation to work after many weeks(months) of frustration.  Thanks to everyone who gave their suggestions.  Now I am worse off before.  I don't know how to talk to linux.  At all.  I can do a few commands, cd, df, dir, and other simple stuf.  I don't know, however, how to run programs.  I have always prefered dos to windows but this is quite a bit more complex.  How do I run programs?  How do I know what type of extension is an exe. file?  Can someone suggest a book for beginners.  Preferably geared toward debian.  I though I would be able to figure it out but I think I had better get a book.   thanks   rod