Well, installation from generic source files isn't very simple for the newbie. I've just been through my first of those, too.

That's what you get when there is no fixed state for your OS. A Windows programmer knows what his clients have, but if you program for Linux you never know which kernel and which other important files people have. You cannot always include everything which may be needed by anyone or you end up with your own distro.
But I believe there will be pre-packaged versions available for your distro. I'm using Mandrake 9.1 myself, so I usually look for a RPM file built for that. Suse IIRC doesn't use rpm but there will be some sort of package manager for it, too. You can probably find a list of FTP servers on the Suse site where you can find pre-packaged software.
Robin