After I untar files what do I next? I am trying to get xine working on my pc, I have the necessary downloads burned to cd already. I go to the directory in which I stored the programs, then I open a terminal and enter the tarring command, another screen pops ups and flies through all of these different checks and then I have these folder icons that come up right next to the files that I just untarred. What should I do once I open the folders is there a certain command or program that I can use to get the documents to execute, because right know all I can do is view the contents of the files? With Kwrite I think.

after you untar
read readme and install files
make any needed changes to ./configure

make

make install

yeah, when you untar files you're just "unzipping" a file as you would in Windows. So then when you've untarred the file you just need to run the installer, whether it's an automatic thing or compile it as was suggested in the above post.

Read those README's. They're supremely helpful in most cases.

If you ever skip the README that will be the time where there are mandatory settings that you absolutely have to set to run the install!
--Murphy

indeed