Installation problem

[Pincher]

Hi,
Please bear with me I am a newbie.
My brother0in-law has suggested I install XAMPP to ensue a quick an easy installation of Drupal.
I have followed the instructions at Apachefriends and I don't seem to be getting anywhere.
1. Download and save file
2. Using both the Terminal and by entering the shell with F1 I get the following:
me@me ~ $ tar xvfz xampp-linux-1.7.4.tar.gz -C /opt
tar (child) : xampp-linux-1.7.4.tar.gz: Cannot open: No such file or directory
tar (child) : Error is not recoverable : exiting now
tar : Child returned status 2
tar : Error not recoverable : exiting now
me@me ~ $

I have tried both several times and checked for typographic errors and believe there must be something very simple that \I am missing each time. I would be grateful if someone could point me in the right direction.
Regards,
Pincher,

[Altrea]

tar (child) : xampp-linux-1.7.4.tar.gz: Cannot open: No such file or directory

Have you navigated to the path where your .tar.gz file is?
and you have to execute that command as su (with su or sudo)