Okay, Im running CentOS 5.1 and it isn't connected to the internet so i'm having to download files through my laptop and transfer across. My problem is im completly new to linux and am not used to the tar.gz, pkg extraction methods.

Questions

Firstly im having trouble getting the gcc libraries installed (i must of missed them during installation) in the right location. I've unpacked them using the 'tar xvjf' command but its dumped them in my Home directory how do i move them to somewhere else (as im not sure if they work there)?

How do i delete something i've unpacked from my system with/without its dependencies?

Ive been trying to install MPlayer but theirs about four separate bz2 files and i'm like argghhh!!
What am i suppose to do with them?
Does the codecs need a special directory or is where they unpacked work(home directory)?
Do they all go in the same folder once unpacked or do i separate them one for the codecs, player and skins?

Also is there a command line text editor that works without kde/gnome?

You shouldn't install gcc and libraries from source, only if they are not present in your distrinution repositories. So, install gcc and all development stuff from your distro packages. Otherwise, you'll have big problems in the future, even if you manage to install it from the source.

The Mplayer page describes what you should do with codecs. It's pretty well documented, actually. http://www.mplayerhq.hu
In short, you unpack your codecs into /usr/local/lib/codecs before compiling MPlayer and unpack you skins into /usr/local/share/mplayer/skins Name one of the skin directories "default".

As to the text editors, there's emacs, vi, nano, mcedit and many others.
Good Luck.

Try synaptic.