Yes, there are simpler Linux versions, all the way down to command-line only systems. But I think that would actually be harder to learn in the beginning for a new user.
The concept of a "distribution" is to gather together a number of apps that the developers think will be useful for most people, and to assemble them into a graphical desktop. Windows does the same thing, including games, web browser, text editor, etc. The various Linux distros commonly use many of the same apps, like Brasero for disk burning, Gimp for photo editing, and LibreOffice for writing documents or creating spreadsheets. These are all very good tools, but others are also available.
This is why I suggest that you try out a number of different distributions using your USB stick to run the "live version" before you pick one to install. But once you do install to your hard drive, you can use the package manager to add new apps or to delete those you don't like. So you can trim your own Linux down to a much simpler version yourself that way.
Booting and running a live Linux on the USB stick is a little slower than when it is installed on the hard drive, but it is a great test platform for you. On some versions you can enable what is called "persistence" on your USB stick too... that lets information be saved on the USB to remain part of the system. So it will save your passwords, for example, and you won't have to enter them in every time you log in to your wireless network. It will also let you install whole programs to the USB stick too, as long as you give the "persistence" a large enough space to work with. This is very handy. You can actually make this your full time computer system and take it with you in your pocket anywhere you go... and plug it in and boot off of any physical computer you can access, a friend's, or at work, or school. However USB sticks can be prone to failure with a lot of read-write cycles, so it is good to make frequent backups of the USB to not lose anything important if a failure occurs.
Ubuntu has a new version coming out soon, but it will probably look a lot like their last one. I'm not a big fan of the Unity desktop myself, but it is a good system. I still burn new distros to DVD or USB myself and see what new changes are happening. I'm looking forward to the next release of Fedora because they are trying something differrent. That is part of the fun for me. But mostly I run the home computer on Linux Mint, with the Mate desktop environment. It has been very stable and easy to use for a long time.
Cheers!
