mission failure - how to load AVR

I had the simple task of loading my program onto the AVR tonight to see it execute my own code for the first time; I should have suspected there was no hope. The task was too simple.

I found that I didn't have uisp loaded on Ubuntu already - no worries, I thought. I'll just build it... './configure --prefix=/usr/local/avr'. Boom - g++ not available on the Ubuntu install that I'm using. I checked the Applications - Add / Remove and I don't see it, but it must be added through some other process. So I resorted to my backup plan - install avrdude. No joy there, either: don't have yacc installed.

Back in the day when the whole system was compiled and you knew what was on it, installing g++ or yacc was a no-brainer. It is probably still a no-brainer, but ... all I want to do is load my program onto the AVR - why am I installing a new compiler or compiler compiler?! *sigh* Tired from Linux rot.