Unless there's something strange going on (router issues for example) there shouldn't be a need to install those tools. That said, I find it to be a very valuable tool, and use it almost always.
Initial installation is a bit of a pain, but once it's running, it's pretty neat to have. Luckily there are some tutorials on how to install the required programs, as well as a very neat community-made installer (for windows), which I've used with great success in the past.
From now on, it should be. Connection is often the 'hardest' part due to the different setups people have. There's no way to test them all, and the next best thing is helping when issues pop up.
The IDE can now be used to do firmware upgrades as well, in the future, should there be any (very likely ;))
Just let us know if you run into further issues, and we'll see what we can do 