To change directories, "cd <directoryname>"
To list contents of the current directory, "ls".
For decompressing .gz files, "gunzip filename.gz"
For .bz2 files "bunzip2 filename.gz"
For extracting tar files, "tar xvf filename.tar"
And then cd to the directory created.
If this directory contains source code of the software, the general way to install is
./configure
make
make install
But this can vary, read the README and INSTALL files
less README
less INSTALL
Some miscellaneous commands -
To display a file on screen,
cat filename
To display it such that you can scroll up and down with the arrow keys
less filename
Text editor
vi filename
Remember that it is always case sensitive.