I dloaded the tar for kopete 0.9.2 and when I run ./configure, I get an error that says "configure: error: Can't find X includes. Please check your installation and add the correct paths!" I am also having this problem with many other programs that I am trying to install. I am a newb to linux and I'm trying to learn all this. If someone knows what to do to get this to work, please tell me what the commands are doing and why I'm doing them. I'd just really like to have an understanding of what I'm doing rather than just being some idiot typing in commands in the console. I'm running Mandrake 10.2 and Xorg 6.8.2 patch 3. Thanks in advance for help.

Hmm... I would reccomend installing it via a RPM, as this should take care of dependencies.
It doesn't appear as though you have xorg-devel packages installed.

Well, suck... That stinks.. .anyone know where to get an rpm for a newer version of kopete?

What you need is the development packages of the xserver that you have installed. I think on Mandrake it's something like xorg-devel or xorg-x11-devel. Alternatively install using a Mandrake rpm, it will cause you less problems. To do this you need to configure Mandrakes package manager urpmi to download and install packages from official Mandrake repositories. To find out more about urpmi, go to zebulon.org.uk and easyurpmi.

I don't mean to sound heartless, but if you are running Mandrake 10.2, you should know you are running a beta version. Beta = "doesn't work right yet".

I would suggest using EasyUrpmi to set up the "cooker" repositories, and pulling the Kopete rpm from there.