I used the command others helped me find..
tar -xzvf amsn_cvs.tar.gz

However I am lost at which direction to go now that I have ran this command, I thought running that command made the program operable.. I have tried the make install and make commands, firstly by themselves, then after being prompted that i needed a target I tried
make /root/amsn/
make install /root/amsn/

and visa versa,

nothing working yet, what do I do? Any help is greatly appreciated!

Beware that in order to compile a program, you need to have the gcc compiler installed, as well as the application make, and their dependencies. Also, AMSN may have its own dependencies, read the INSTALL file to find out more. If you want to install these packages you can use the software management tool of your distro. You may even find AMSN in the repositories, so you don't have to compile it...

Anyway, once you met all these requirements you can compile AMSN by doing the following.

First, in a console change to the directory where you untar the sources files.

Then, you need to type the following commands in a console INSIDE the directory where you untar the source files:

Note that you have to type the last command as root.

I do appreciate your help friend.`