Forgive my MS upbringing

[CDitty]

I hate to admit this, but I am afraid that I am the product of a MS only
upbringing.  I am trying to break free of my MS bonds though.  I have
installed RH and have a basic understanding for Xwindows and Linux itself.
However, I recently d/led a few programs that have tgz and gz extensions on
them.  

Can someone point me in the right direction to uncompress and to install
these programs?  

TIA

CDitty