not sure if system is hung or not

[Steve Richter <StephenRichter@gmail.com>]

just installed debian on imac g3.

I login and get some sort of a debian prompt.  I dont know what to do
at this point, so I start typing some commands that might show a
directory tree.  One command is "pr".  "pr" produces one line of
output and does not return to a prompt.  I can type, but everything
just scrolls on the screen, no more command prompt.

press ALT-F2 for 2nd signon.  Signon, change directory to USR, type
"dir" to see contents of the directory, change directory to "games".  
Type the file name of one of the games, press enter, and again nothing
seems to run and I am not returned to the command prompt.

I am obviously clueless on Linux.  Is there a graphical desktop I can
run to help me navigate the system?  I would like to get to an IDE for
the c++ compiler and figure out how to do some PowerPC assembler
programming.

thanks a lot,

-Steve