Newbie Suse Php Apache MySQL Death

Im very new to linux so I decided to begin my journey with what is touted as
one of the most user friendly distros Suse 8.0. After finding my way around
the GUI I started making my way through the Shells. However I've run from
one problem to the next.

1. After following every tutorial I could find on getting Apache installed I
found that one of the most popular commands "Make" and "Make Install" was
not even installed with my original distro I had to pull it off one of the
cds. (I found that perl and my gcc or c compiler was similar) I found this
on accident when I was looking for a basic binary to install.

2. After that I ran into some apxs error.

3. Finally get localhost to display the Apache installed page and try to
install Php with any number of directory errors and the like including the
apxs error.

4. Skip the crap apache install that I cant even tell whats working with the
exception of the localhost page. Try installing MySql which seems to be
going okay until I try to get into mysqladmin and get a constant error that
the service basically is not running.

I've gone through every single help file in the tar.gz's in each app (which
is basically a mirror of whats on the site) Is this a problem with my
distrobution can anybody send me somewhere (other than the standard
apache,php,mysql home pages) I'm pulling my hair out here and am about 2
command lines from dumping linux from the partition and sticking to windows
for life. I know and understand the performance possibilities with linux but
just getting 3 simple products to work is about more than I can take.
Help!!!!!

I apologize if this post doesnt sound too well thought out but I've too many problems to effectively describe them all and Im at my wits end.

Thanks In advance
URL

The answer to all your Linux, Apache, Mysql, PHP install questions is HERE

Don't know what your distro is, but on my Mandrake 8.2 I got everything working immediately after install.
Of course compiling from source is another thing, but for learning is an unnecessary problem.