How to install on linux?

[Joelmon2001]

I have old 3.7 make and gmake on a raq 3 linux

I simply need to install this so I can install freetype2

but now I am confused

can I just untar
go to top level directory
./configure
make
make install?

what is a proven way for linux so I can get on with installing freetype
and gd library?

Thanks

Joel