Darktable has an astonishingly odd UI. It’s a very, very powerful piece of software, but the workflow and assumptions are unlike any other software tool I’ve used. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but if you’re looking to make a few luminosity adjustments as in Lightroom, it’s going to feel alien. RawTherapee isn’t, I suppose, as powerful at the top end, but it’s much more accessible initially.
You might also want to look at Rapid Photo Downloader for easy and consistent photo importing to the filesystem.