An exe is of course a dos/windows file, It is a compiled file ready to
be executed by the computer. When I first came over to the Linux
side, this was important to me because I was always looking for the
icon used to start one. Truth is I still use them under wine, but
find my programs under applications on the top bar that run under
linux. The package manager will find and load most applications you
will be using and you can find the applications Icon in that menu at
the top. If you must compile an application not listed in the manager
you will find the Icon you need to start it where you compiled the
application. I have yet to need the Terminal for anything other than
changing the boot order or something requiring sudo privileges. Use
the .deb files when you can, they make life so much easer, and soon
.exe file searches will become a thing of the past. You will remember
how windows wasted time populating lists and like that Linux keeps an
updated list as you load a program, my question about windows is is it
sleeping when you add a program or what? Linux on the otherhand seems
to be there all the time, and time is what it saves. Hang in there
because you will learn a better way to compute using linux.