Installing VMware Tools in Ubuntu 8.10

I am totally new to Linux. I have a MacBook Pro Intel 17" with Dual booth using Bootcamp (Mac/Win). I have been a Mac/Windows user and became very good at using both. Now, because of my job, I need to learn as much as I can and as fast as I can about Linux, specifically Ubuntu and later open Suse. So, I decided to target Ubuntu first.

My first question is:
What is the best way to run Ubuntu in a Mac?

I decided to use VMware Fusion 2.0 since all resources I found in the internet were quite complex or needed some degree of understanding in "Linux" language and modisms, which I am totally new at.

So, I ventured, I installed Ubuntu 8.10 and I was pretty successful, but now I am left to install VMware tools. I have no idea how to do it. I searched all over the internet. I have not been able to find anything to help me. I don't speak "Linux" but I am willing to learn.
My second question is: Can anyone give me some light in how to install VMware tools in Ubuntu?

This may well be the very first useful resource for newbies in installing Vmware tools and Ubuntu. I could not find anything simple enough to help me.

Thanks!

 

I am stuck...

But yet, I am excited. Thanks for the reply!

I am getting somewhere, let me tell you what I did:
I installed VMWare tools from the menu. A CD image appeared. I double clicked in the CD and the item VMwareTools-7.9.3-128865.tar.gz appeared. I copied this folder to the desktop. A box like icon with a lock appeared.

I opened terminal (I am using GNOME)

I wrote in terminal:

"sudo apt-get update" and pressed enter, and there were quite a bit of processes started. At the end, I entered:
"sudo apt-get upgrade" I hit enter again and some more processes went on... Later, I entered the following:
"sudo apt-get install linux-headers-`(my username) -r build essential" and pressed enter and some more processes went on, however among all what was there, it read somewhere: "Package linux-headers is not installed, so not removed". All else went fine. It ended with "Setting up build essential (11.4)..."

After, I did "cd Desktop" and it changed to
"(my username@mycomputername):~/Desktop$

After this, I typed "tar -zxvf VMWareTools-e.x.p-" and pressed "tab" and it did not complete the file, so I wrote:
"tar -zxvf VMWareTools-e.x.p-<tab>" and it read: "bash: syntax error near unexpected token `newline`

After that I tried all and couple combinations of the rest of the script and nothing worked. I kept on receiving errors like "No such File or Directory" "Error is not recoverable: exiting now"

What am I doing wrong?

 

Done!

Thank you. I had to play around a little bit with the codes.

It was a wild ride. I am done now and I thank you for taking the time to guide me.

There was a part that it asked where to install the binary files, and I also learned that by just pressing "enter" the default values kick in.

I guess I am now in the "Linux" world and I got to find my way to get familiar with the OS. I hope I get to like it. So far it has been quite difficult...