Well, it is up to you if you believe the Slackware forum members or your "very experienced computer geek" about Slackware.
I am currently using Firefox 10.0.2, the newest Thunderbird and a lot of other recent software on Slackware, I wouldn't call that ancient. You also can decide yourself how hard it is to install, just have a look at the Installing Slackware with screenshots link in my signature.

I think your real problem is simply that you expect Linux to be like a different Windows and, hey, you just found out that it is not, congratulations. It will not look like Windows and it doesn't work like Windows, just because Linux is not Windows (also a link in my sig).

But anyways, of course it is totally up to you if you will run Linux or not. If it is not for you then just don't use it. Nobody here wants to force you. But asking here for help and then simply putting it down because some local geek says otherwise is just pointless. You would have saved your and our time if you asked him first.

A little bit correction: that error is issued by gcc, indicating that gcc exist.
Visual studio is made by microsoft, which is impossible to make something for linux.

yes it dose
cent 6 is a rebuild of RHEL and like rhel ntfs-3g needs to be installed

please read the guides

and the opensuse dvd will run on any NEW hardware ( a few will cause problems , but it is documented)
if this computer is 10+ years old then you WILL have problems

Linux is NOT a "clone" of MS windows and will NOT work 100% like Windows
YOU need to relearn how to do things

>>If Linux is so great, tell my where to get a download of the GCC development tools that I can install.

Hi,

My name is Amadeus de Koning, I am co-author of a new linux distro called HOLOS.

Our current release version 1.2 'Hydrogen' does not have a functional compiler tool chain (due to incompatible libraries).

We are currently working on the alpha release of 1.3 'Oxygen' which will feature a working build chain.

The whole stack is completely compatible with Debian 6 squeeze, but we have our own UI and scripting logic, so it works as a platform for our in-house development and as a polished working station for our clients.

We could make you a special debian install DVD or live USB stick of our distro which also installs the entire build chain, reading only from the medium, without needing internet. We specifically developed HOLOS from a Debian stable base, to have this capability for those countries (80%?) of the world that does not have permanent access (a reality quite unlike the image that many giant media corporations project nowadays, with their clouds, markets and app stores). Also most linux package systems are quite network-centric.

We would at least need to get you a 8-16 GB USB stick to comfortably get you the huge squashfs ISO file (although it might be possible via bittorrent, but we are not ready to release yet). Contact me personally for more info.

Cheers,

Amadeus

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"Very experienced"? As far as knowledge regarding Slackware (or any GNU/Linux distro) is concerned, I doubt it. As far as selling inferior stuff to the gullible, I can believe that.
Who cares? Use what you want.