To be fair: Trying to compile on the Mac is still not "easy".
I don't know what other systems are like.
Part of the problem is just trying to figure out what you assume as the "starting point" for a system -- on the mac, for example, a system with no development environment isn't quite the same as one that just needs another recompile.
(And part of it is the bleeping SDL issue -- but that's likely a mac-only issue with no microsoft equivalent.)
Paul: Rather than asking people to do it for you, or give you a perfect "canned" answer, why don't you try to follow the instructions in the wiki as best as you can, and tell us where it fails and what doesn't work? This isn't silly -- the best way to improve the wiki is for people who are NOT computer experts to tell us where things are going wrong.
"Doing it" for you solves one person.
"Fixing the wiki" solves many people.