I'm pretty new to Linux. I had Ubuntu for awhile, now I installed Fedora12, I'm trying to follow directions to install a program from source code (tar.gz file) I have the February 2010 issue of Linux Format, and am trying to follow it step by step. I copied gnurobbo off their disk to my desk top, which copied it. Then I did the cd command, then I did the ls command and it didn't show me anything but a line saying desktop and a few other things like pictures movies etc. so I did cd gnurobbo-0.64 and it says no such file. I have been trying this for a few times and I think I'm going crazy. PLEASE HELP.

It looks like you are clueless about the command line.

Read the LinuxCommand tutorial (linked to in my sig) before continuing.

Hello and welcome to LQ
I'd suggest you read on some basic linux commands first so that you'd know what is going on:
For example,
http://www.debianhelp.co.uk/commands.htm

When you open the terminal you are in your /home/username/ directory by default. You can check it using the command:
'pwd'. Your file is on the Desktop (=/home/yourusername/Desktop)

So you need to either:
1. Change your current directory to /home/username/Desktop and untar the source there.
2. create a new directory in /home/username/ eg. 'packages', copy the source there and proceed with the installation in that directory.

To change the current directory you use 'cd'. The rest I'll leave you to research on your own:
http://www.reallylinux.com/docs/basic.shtml

Once you read the above info, you should be able to do stuff like that on your own. If you're stuck with
somthing, don't hesitate to ask.

PS, please use more descriptive titles in the future

Indeed learning about the command line will help you here.

First things first you will need to extract the archive to get the source directory.

using tar xvf is pretty universal way to extract. Need to open a command line terminal like xterm before you do this tho.