installing new software

Hello,
I recently downloaded and installed fedora core 3, and I am triyng to install other software like movie players and so on, when ever I download software for this operating system, I recieve with the software a text file explaining how to install it. The installation instrucions are allways the same. Aafter I type ./configure like the file says, i recieve this message, it happend with a few apps I tried to install :
[root@localhost xmps-0.2.0]# ./configure
loading cache ./config.cache
checking for a BSD compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking whether make sets ${MAKE}... yes
checking for working aclocal... missing
checking for working autoconf... missing
checking for working automake... missing
checking for working autoheader... missing
checking for working makeinfo... missing
checking whether to enable maintainer-specific portions of Makefiles... no
checking host system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking build system type... i686-pc-linux-gnu
checking for ranlib... ranlib
checking for gcc... no
checking for cc... no
configure: error: no acceptable cc found in $PATH
if anyone can please explain what this eans and how to install software fo y new OS I would be forever greatfull.

You are missing alot of necessary files. You need to install those files from your CD. Such as gcc; the gnu c compiler. You should be able to find them on your CD, or download them from a ftp server.

To install the files, as root or su, run the rpm command or use whatever packagemanager is available. If using the command line, then issue the command rpm -i yourfile-rpm to install the packages.