I tried to dual-boot Debian (Linux) on my Windows Computer but there was not enough space (or – it would have taken too much time to create the space to do it) so instead I installed VirtualBox and then installed Debian on a Virtual Machine. I used these instructions and they worked very well
https://tandiljuan.github.io/en/blog/2025/07/debian-virtualbox-install-guide/
Once I had a working version of Debian I installed the Gnome desktop environment using these instructions
https://operavps.com/docs/install-gnome-debian/
After logging in I clicked on Activities on the top left of the desktop and then on Software from the menu on the Left Hand side.
I uninstalled Evolution and all of the games that were installed along with Gnome by clicking on the Installed tab at the top of the window, then clicking on the Remove button for each application.
I installed Filezilla, GIMP, Musescore, Openshot, Remmina, Thunderbird and VLC. I was able to search for by clicking on the Explore tab, then clicking on the magnifying glass at the top left of the window and entering the name of each application. Then I clicked on the application that I wanted and finally the [Install] button.
I had to manually install Zoom by downloading the .deb file from
https://support.zoom.com/hc/en/article?id=zm_kb&sysparm_article=KB0063458
and using these instructions to manually install the downloaded file
https://www.linuxbash.sh/post/using-dpkg-to-manually-install-deb-packages
Similarly I installed RemotePC and TeamViewer