Basic question

Hi, Let me begin by saying I know nothing about web design. I need to build a web site and came across wordpress.org. My questions are as follows:

Getting Started:
Can I use wordpress if I do not want a blog on my web site, but rather I just want to create a web site?

Downloading:
Does the wordpress software download to my desktop computer? Or does it download to the actual web host?
If it downloads to my computer, do I need to be running linix/unix and have mysql loaded onto my computer? In other words I can’t download it onto my Windows 7 machine?

Using:
If it downloads to my computer, does it then work like dreamweaver (which I have not used) where I will later upload it to the web host?

Profiles of Users:
Are the web sites that you have profiles of on your web site actually built in wordpress, OR do they just use wordpress for the blog portion of their web site?

I have spent quite a bit of time searching the wordpress web site and the answers to my questions above (while they may be obvious to others) were not found by me, so please bear with me if they are already answered someplace on the web site already.

Thank you, I greatly appreciate all of your help.