A mini lesson on installing programs for Linux: Keep to programs made for your distro. Use only those in the repos for the distro you are using. Not only is it easy to install and delete programs but it's safer as well.

I too could never wrap my brain around compiling tar balls (compressed programs from non-approved sources). So I never used them. On the other hand, programs from approved sources (official repos) are no sweat to work with. Most distros have GUIs to do all the work for you. Just point and click.