a bit confused about Thunderbird and Firefox
 

Recently installed f16 - Thunderbird and Firefox freeze sometimes

I may have caused it. After new system came up those 2 programs might have offered me the opportunity to get newer versions. I might have accepted. In this case I may have gone upstream of the distribution. I didn't take notes detailed enough to know - and memory ain't so hot these days.

Firefox tells me it's 15.0, Thunderbird sez it's 15.0. I'm running Linux 3.4.11-1.fc16.i686.

I don't know where to look to see which versions of these programs are correct for this distribution.

If I knew I don't know exactly what to do to fix it. I assume yum may hold the answer.

Whatever I do I don't want to lose my Thunderbird files - since they hold important emails that I have sent and received over the years.

Since this particular forum is loaded with some very knowledgeable guys I came here asking for help.

All your local data should be in a hidden file '.thunderbird' in your home directory.
I would suggest that you make a copy of .thunderbird (note that's dot thunderbird, in your home directory window select view > Show hidden files), and name the copy something suitable and save in your home dir. This will ensure that your mail etc can be retrieved if anything goes wrong.
Then go to Applications > system tools > Add/remove software, and in the little text box upper left, type in Thunderbird, and eventually it will show you which version you have installed, it will be the one that is ticked.
To uninstall, simply untick it then select OK.
When that is done, in Add/remove software, select system > software sources, then select Software sources in the new window, and check that you have the appropriate Fedora 16 (X86_64 or i686) selected and 'Fedora 16 -Updates', 'RPM Fusion for Fedora 16 -Free', and (possibly if it suits you), 'RPM Fusion for Fedora 16 -Nonfree' selected.
Then, as you did for thunderbird uninstall, type in Thunderbird, and you should be presented with the latest version available for your system.
After installation, if your mail is missing you can copy your backup of .thunderbird to .thunderbird, but I doubt that will be required.
Let's know how you get on.

Cheers,
Terry

Hi Terry
Thanks for your detailed reply - now I know where the thunderbird emails are hidden - and can grab them with an editor if I wish

It occurred to me to ask yum - and it told me that the ones available are the ones that are installed
Cheers
Dick