First thing I have found that gives switchers fits. Things on a Mac are uncomplicated and obvious. It really is as simple as it should be.
Take some time to explore the system prefs and set things up the way you want them. Click on the Apple upper left of screen and select system preferences.
Just click thru them, they are self explanatory.
Safari is fine, so is mail. Camino and Firefox work equally as well.
For navigation there are several views just like Windows, I prefer this view,
Note the highlighted blue icon upper left, I use the cascading view as m primary, you click on a folder and it reveals the structure beneath it. Click the other views to see what they do.
The Dock is your friend, you can modify it's size and position in the system prefs. When you run a piece of saoftware that is not permanently in the dock ou can right click it to tell it to stay there. It just creates a "shortcut" in the dock. To remove stuff from the dock just click hold and drag them out then let go.
To find stuff till you get used to the environment use spotlight, upper right corner, little blue magnifing glass, click it and start to type into the field and what a list of matching items appears.
lot's more to tell you but that should get you sstarted on the exploration.