Here are some basic instructions.

To install Firefox or Thunderbird on Linux:

Download the tar.gz package from www.mozilla.org
e.g.
thunderbird.2.0.0.0.tar.gz

Look in /usr/lib to see if an earlier package exists - if it doesn't have
version number suffix you may need to save it.

Unbundle the package to /usr/lib:
e.g.
cd /usr/lib
tar xzvf /root/thunderbird.2.0.0.0.tar.gz

This should create a directory with the install usually without the version.
e.g.
/usr/lib/thunderbird

So you'll know later you should renamed the directory with the version:
e.g.
mv /usr/lib/thunderbird /usr/lib/thunderbird.2.0.0.0

Make a link (check for existing executable first and save it if desired):
e.g.
which thunderbird
Shows: /usr/bin/thunderbird
mv /usr/bin/thunderbird /usr/bin/thunderbird.old
ln -s /usr/lib/thunderbird.2.0.0.0/thunderbird /usr/bin/thunderbird

At that point you should just be able to start the application by typing the
command at the prompt:
e.g.
thunderbird


Posted because this annoys me about the Mozilla site. It takes you cleanly to a place to download the package for Linux but then doesn't bother to tell you what to do with the .tar.gz you've downloaded. I had to figure it out for Firefox upgrade a few months ago then promptly forgot about it today when my boss wanted to install Thunderbird. The README.txt is a joke - it just points you at their site. The site in the "installing" section just says something like "this can be installed on Linux" which makes one wonder why they bothered with the README.txt or the link for "installing" on their site.

nice thread, this should be a sticky.

i agree 90%+ of Linux HOWTO/README guides are PATHETIC. they tell the average new user NOTHING about how to perform a basic task and if the user is using something like Ubuntu, or FC, or SuSE, forget it they are FUBAR. same thing goes for pure Debian. so any distro that is RPM or DEB based that is wrapped heavily around a package manager will be so lost as to have no clue what to do with that tarball.

this is the #1 downfall of most linux distros out there. they make the assumption, and we all know that assumptions make one an a$$, that the person reading the guide is an experianced linux/unix user and knows what he is doing. well if that were the case, then why would someone with that much experiance be looking at a bloody HOWTO/README in the first place?

even though Gentoo takes weeks to install and get running at least they have the BEST HOWTO guides out there for linux. the rest of the FOSS community could learn loads from those guys.

I never bothered to put it in the /usr/lib anyway, mainly because on that machine there was only one user. Just extracted the package and run the executable -- worked right away without tricks.

They could be more clear with their instructions, but then again, if you install it using the package you probably know what you're doing because those major distributions meant for non-geeky newbies either already have Firefox or provide you with easy tools to install it using a binary package (trough package manager).

Sorry to disagree but that isn't the case. A newbie might (as my boss DID) find their way to Firefox' site to get the newest Firefox/Thunderbird. Downloading the file is fairly straightforward because they give you a big link to do it. Unfortunately they don't bother to tell you what to do once you've downloaded the file.

It wouldn't be so annoying except they obviously thought about a README file by including the one that just links you back to the site. They obviously thought about installation instructions by including a link for installing. The problem is they don't actually tell you HOW to install anywhere.

How do newbies know there is a newer one if apt-get or yum or one of the distro specific package tools didn't tell them? Because they have the newer package on some Windoze box and THAT was easy enough for them to install because they provide an executable for that purpose.

So another issue comes in that the distro boys don't always provide the latest version of tools in their repositories but I don't really fault them for that. I do however fault Mozilla for its BS non-installation information. It took me about 5 minutes to write the above notes - how long would it have taken one of them?

If we want Linux to be adopted by the world we can't say "well if you're smart enough to get it you should be smart enough to install it" and leave it at that IMO.

P.S. I put it in /usr/lib only because that is where the earlier version was installed.

My MOBO died and I have another PC that was running WinBlows.

Today, it runs SuSE 9.3 with the Kernel updated today.

I just downloaded Thunderbird 2.0, but the Readme information Swallows.

I just need an email program other than Kontact for personal use.

Please help... I'm not sure how to get the installation script to execute. IO tried opening a terminal and typing ~./thunderbird, thunderbird, or mozilla-thunderbird.
The shell file I Extracted doesn't seem to run.

thx

And also sucks.

If you've untarred thunderbird-2.0.0.0.tar.gz in your home directory /home/salmanal (let's say) with some command like "tar xzf thunderbird-2.0.0.0.tar.gz", then you have a directory thunderbird-2.0.0.0. In a terminal window in X windows, go to your home directory, "cd", then "cd thunderbird-2.0.0.0". Now "thunderbird" should bring up the thunderbird screen.

If that works, you can automate it by making a file in /usr/bin/ named "thunderbird" which contains this:
And "chmod +x /usr/bin/thunderbird" makes "thunderbird" a program you can call from anywhere. The point of the shell script above is to make sure that thunderbird can find its libraries in thunderbird-2.0.0.0/ when it starts up.

I'll try it now and I'll have an email client today.........