Yeah, I think every Linux user switches distros over the years to find one that suits them best. It's always interesting (to me) to hear what path others have trod along the way.
I was lucky in that my girlfriend was much more deeply into Linux than I was when I decided to get rid of Windows altogether almost two years ago now. She was a big help. If I didn't know something, I'd just ask her. Unfortunately, I can't offer my girlfriend as a resource. ;-)
Even though I consider myself a geek (and you sound like you are as well), this book, Ubuntu for Non-Geeks, helped me out:
I was lucky in that my girlfriend was much more deeply into Linux than I was when I decided to get rid of Windows altogether almost two years ago now. She was a big help. If I didn't know something, I'd just ask her. Unfortunately, I can't offer my girlfriend as a resource. ;-)
Even though I consider myself a geek (and you sound like you are as well), this book, Ubuntu for Non-Geeks, helped me out:
http://www.amazon.com/Ubuntu-Linux-Non-Geeks-Project-Based-G...
Since you're using Debian, a lot of that will apply, too.
I also just read a whole lot of man pages and used the great Ubuntu Guide site:
http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Intrepid
And I used the Linux command reference PDF here:
http://fosswire.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/fwunixref.pdf
And of course a lot of Googling.
It does bother me that Ubuntu is coming to mean "Linux" to a lot of people, but it is a good distro.
What do you like about xfce? Never tried it myself.