My workstation runs under the 64bit version of ubuntu 10.04.2 Desktop.

I downloaded the archive: inkscape-0.48.1.tar.bz2, from http://sourceforge.net/projects/inkscape/files/, with the intent of getting the latest stable build (in general if I can find a download for packages outside the Ubuntu Software Center use it, because they frequent lag on getting up to date versions).

I extracted the archive, found file install-sh, and tried to run it, but nothing happened.

Are there any installation instructions for installing on ubuntu, from the inkscape-0.48.1.tar.bz2 archive ?

I'm more of a java-developer than a sys-adminner and am hoping to avoid compiling inkscape from source.

The update center seems to have 0.48.1-2ubuntu1 (inkscape) when I search for inkscape, so I'd recomend just getting it from there, a lot less hassle than rolling your own (the tar.bz2 is a source bundle afaik)