I'm very new to Linux. I'd like to know how to install software.

I found that my distro (kernal 2.4.21 w/ mandrake 9.1 (uname -r = 2.4.21-0.13mdk)) only came with 2 media players: Xine and Kabootle, both of wich serve absolutly no purpose because they don't acually play anything I try.

This bothers me, because I tend to use my computer mostly for video and mp3s, but with linux I can't do anything but open windows and type stuff.

I did manage to install Linuxant DriverLoader, but only after giving up on every other option and finally following step by step instructions from Linuxant.com. Apparently I only have 30 days use, so that sucks. But anyhow, the point is that I had no idea what I was doing, I just followed directions.

Now I continue running into problems every time I need software. I tried downloading Bittorrent programs, but even after looking into the README (and not all included much help) I still couldn't figure out how to install it.

Now I want to install MPlayer. I extracted it and did './configure', 'make' and 'make install' and alot of text came up and then it went back to the prompt, so I figured it installed. However I don't know where it went. I see a MPlayer executable file that does nothing. I also see in many directories 'make' files, which I for some reason associate with that make command thingy that seems to install stuff.

So am I not done? Is there more to install? I probably did somthing wrong, but I wouldn't know. Maybe I'm missing software or I followed the wrong directions. Most of what I read goes right over my head anyway.

So to keep my question straight forward I guess what I'm asking is: How do I install MPlayer on my computer so that it will play all of the types of media I'm used to playing (.avi,.mpg,.mp3,etc...) on my windows computer using WMPlayer in a way even I could understand?

You need the codecs, a skin, a font and the package. All of these are downloadable from www.mplayerhq.hu and should be downloaded to a directory on your pc. Now for the fun part

The codecs (grab all of them - save your self some later hassle) should be extracted to /usr/lib/win32/codecs (you may need to create the codecs folder). This should be done as root.
The fonts and skins I tend to extract to /home/username/.mplayer/fonts and /home/username/.mplayer/Skins - the capital S is not a mistake, by the way.

Then, open a console, cd to the download directory and extract the mplayer files. Still as your normal user type in:
./configure --enable-gui (this enables a gui, which will be opened with gmplayer as the command)
make
switch to root by typing in su -m and type in root's password
then type make install

MPlayer will then use the codecs, skin and font and will open up ready to play all sorts of files.