The best thing to do if you want to install an app in ubuntu is to use
synaptic package manager untill you are very familiar with it. Otherwise
look got .deb files that are compatible with ubuntu.

If the software that you have downloaded is something that you cannot find
in synaptic, then u will have to find out if its compiled, or just source
code.

if its compiled, you can execute it. If its sourcecode, then you need to
compile it, and then execute it.