Linux migration hampered by obscurity (Score 1)

My perspective on the difficulties of Linux are more fundamental than yours, but I'm also almost ready to give up. I am in the middle of my third attempt to migrate from Windows to Linux and am having a difficult time with it. The installation was easy and there was a good deal of software included in the process. A similar installation of Windows XP normally takes me about ten to twenty times longer because everything has to be done separately and considerably more protection software has to be installed to make Windows reasonably secure. The problems with Linux have started when I tried to install something not in the original bundle. Tor needs something called libevent, but I can't figure out how to get libevent where it is supposed to go. After three days of hard searching, I have been completely unable to move foreward even a bit. All other applications seem to lack installers, so I have to be able to compile or work in a console. Unfortunately, I can't find an explanation of how to accomplish these tasks. So here is my understanding of where I am: I have to perform functions that are probably fundamental to programmers but are esoteric to everyday users in order to do basic tasks. That ain't going to happen, because I'm only interested in havign software that's a servant rather than a demanding tyrant. It highlights the problem of Linux from my perspective, that it is still the territory of sneering programmers who can't see that disdain the uninitiated. I loathe Windows because it needs so much babysitting and I have to reinstall several times a year to clear out the viruses and other problems, but Linux is like a car that I can start but can't turn. I will give it another day or so and then buy a Macintosh if I can't find my answers.