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i just got mandrake 9 and i was trying to put kazaa on it...i had to download an unzipper for linux...but i have idea how to install it. It tells me to place the makefile in the oppropriate location and use the "make" function. What does that mean? I know its probably the simplest thing...but i just got it and i couldn't figure it out on my own.

This may be the blind leading the blind, I am a Linux newbie myself, but I have been able to install tarballs no problem.

This is to be done in a shell window

tar -zxvf program.version.tar.gz
This will show you the processing of unzipping the tarball into a directory.
cd program.version
This will take you into the directory just made.
./configure
This runs a hidden file (hence the ./) in the directory which checks the system configuration and makes sure all the required libraries are there. If not you will be told what is missing, but that's it.
make
This starts the install process from what I have seen
su then prompted for your root password
This logs you in as root for the final step
make install
This carries out the instructions in the install file of the current directory which basically installs the program.

From then just type the name of the program to run it.

Hope this helps and sorry if it's a bit sketchy, just sharing what I have learned as I stumble about.

thanks for the advice....but i just keep doing something wrong...it doesn't work....are there any websites i can go to..to find out how to work this thing??

yeah, this one. there are hundreds of explanations around here, as well as full instructions with most README's inside the tar.gz files