I'm a new Linux user so please treat me gently

Briefly, I tried the files from sourceforge and finally got a clean configure after sorting out dependencies, but the make file quickly quit due to errors. I then decided to make my ISP earn their money and grabbed the files from github. This resulted in a configure with more errors, some of which I managed to sort out through the software center but still a make file which threw up errors rather quickly, however going back to the original sourceforge files I made it much further through make without critical errors that caused a stop( more dependencies sorted out thanks to the git expeience?) . However I cannot get all the way through make with either.
I know I need files for people to see, but let me figure out this forum and pastebin first.