Lots of people asking about alternatives to Windows here. I've found Ubuntu-MATE to be very good for my needs. It uses the Ubuntu base which gives it access to the debian software repo as well as being a popular distro so often particular use-cases have been fixed for it. However the MATE aspect is a follow-on from an older desktop environment (Gnome 2), which is a fairly no-nonsense, feature rich and polished environment. It remains under active development and keeps thing simple. I prefer this to the changing sands that is Gnome 3 / Unity or Ubuntu's adaption of Gnome 3.