Ok.. I am obviously a newbie.. And am having a frustrating time deciphering what is going on.. Here is what I am doing..

First, I downloaded and installed Firefox.. Now, in the past I installed a few things that were tarballs that I had to compile and run myself. In Firefox's case there was some kind of install program.. Which I installed to a directory I named "APPLICATION" in my home directory.. Now, my question.. Were should I have installed this? Is there somewere in the root directory that all installed programs should go?

You could install Firefox anywhere you want. If you want it in a Application folder, that's fine. There's no wrong place to install firefox. I have mine installed at /home/ken/firefox/

As for installing other applications, again, it's where you prefer to install them. Not everything has to go in root directories.

Ok.. So I put Firefox were ever I want.. In this case my /home directory.. Will it be unaccessable by any other user? If so, were should I install it on /root to share with everyone?

Also, Firefox didn't show up on my desktop as an icon or in my menu.. I ran Menudrake and it isn't there as an option.. When I go to the directory I installed it to, and find the program, and link it to the desktop, I have a 'GEAR' as an icon and it doesn't appear to let me change it.. Is there a better way to add FIREFOX to my menu and desktop?

Sorry for all the cluttered questions.