What Linux distro are you using to try to install Thunderbird? I did not see where you had said which Linux you have installed. Just look for and find your Package Manager on your programs menu,(they go by several names which depends on which Linux you have). Then by either method category or from search words you can have it installed easy. It may be called by the name; Mozilla-Thunderbird, and should be under the Internet category. And you also need to select your software sources too, which may be an option in your handy Package Manager, or as a separate item. The main Linux that is real different with this software installation is Slackware. For any package installs with Slackware, it is done in a Terminal as root.

I believe I answered some of your questions in my post. "Installing" involves simply moving the "thunderbird folder" (the entire folder not just the file) to a permanent home. If you've downloaded the file from the thunderbird site this would normally be in /opt but you are free to put it wherever you want.

What desktop are you using? (kde? gnome? fluxbox? etc) Normally, right-clicking on the desktop will bring up a menu. In Kde one of the items is "Create new..." and then you select the item "Link to Application" and in the Application tab, fill in the command box with /opt/thunderbird/thunderbird (if that's where you've put it).
Cheers,
jdk

Ohhh, thank you kindly jdkaye. I appreciate that. I didn't quite get that from your previous post. Just to let you all know, I know that the Synaptic Package Manager is, and I use it often. I ended up breaking down and getting Thunderbird from it. I didn't want to give up, but I just got tired of fooling with it. When I was finally able to get the Thunderbird executable to work, it wouldn't connect with the gmail server. I appreciate everyone's help. I do know about the package manager, and I do use it, but I wanted to use this particular situation as an opportunity to try and master this tar.gz business. I think I am getting a grasp of it though. Another bit of good news! I have a capstone class this semester, and I get to use my new handy dandy linux box as my project. I am going to make a 99% migration to linux for the duration of the semester (still somewhat dependent on windows unfortunately). I love linux so much now. I never before cared for linux, or really had any desire to learn it. Although my class wasn't that great; it arousing my curiousity was one of the best things to come out of my college career (I found ubuntu!) I actually can say that I would like to see the world migrate over to linux and open source now. That would be fantastic! Thanks again for the support guys. I can do without the condescension from some of the responses, but what can you do. Thanks guys. I hope to one day be developing and contributing to the open source community, and be answering questions on this board more than I ask them. God bless you guys!
-Bryan

Oh, and my distro. I almost forgot! : )
I am using Ubuntu 8.04 x64
Gnome desktop. I am getting a little curious about KDE, and may give Kubuntu or maybe even another distro a try in the future.

You can install KDE on your present setup, using Synaptic (look for the KDE meta package) or apt-get or aptitude from the terminal:
or
Then you can pick which one you want at login from the Sessions menu.

Linux doesn't really have a standard "Program Files" directory; you can keep your program wherever you would like. To make it a system wide executable, however, try the following

sudo ln -s <absolute path to thunderbird> /usr/bin/thunderbird

where <absolute path to thunderbird> is the path to whatever script or program you ran that got thunderbird to run. So if you saved your thunderbird files in /home/anyuser/Desktop/thunderbird/ and you type ./thunderbird to get it to run then <absolute path to thunderbird> would be /home/anyuser/Desktop/thunderbird/thunderbird
Now when you type thunderbird from anywhere in your filesystem (without the ./) thunderbird should launch.

I'm sitting in front of my windows box at work right now so I can't exactly describe how to create the launcher but it's a "right-click->create launcher" sort of thing. If you find it then in the "command" box you can enter /home/anyuser/Desktop/thunderbird/thunderbird or whatever your equivalent is. If you ran the command I gave you above then you can just type thunderbird

Best of luck

Hi BP (or whatever you'd like to be called),
I'm really happy it finally worked.

I agree with you 1000%. That's what's great about linux: it rewards a bit of work and offers you loads of choices about how to do things. Package managers are nice but sometimes I don't want to wait for them. Sooner or later you'll come across a case where you can't get a package and have to compile or install binaries by the tar.gz route. Now your prepared.
Have loads of fun.
Cheers,
jdk

Thanks again guys. Loads of valuable information. I hope this post will last forever so I can refer back to it as reference.

I think being connected to the internet was the key to get ./thunderbird to work...but then it wouldn't connect with the gmail POP server. I ended up having to throw in the towel and download it through the add/remove app, but I did learn alot about unzipping and compiling tarball files. I think I have somewhat of a grip on it now. It's a little more difficult than it should be, but once you get it, it's not so bad. Maybe one day when Linux overcomes Windows this kind of thing will change. Until then though, I'm happy and blessed enough to be able to figure these things and use Linux. I can't believe I have actually become somewhat anti-windows recently. I have fallen in love with this OS. When I first started using it, I would crack it open every now and then, and use my vista machine as my primary machine. Now...I use Linux more than windows. I can't believe I am actually a linux guy now. A year ago, I didn't give two cents about linux. This is so funny. This may not make sense to you guys, but if you were me or knew me you would understand. I am just happy to have something to be geeky about and enjoy! Like I said in another post, I hope to one day be answering questions on this board instead of asking them. Thanks again guys for all of the help, kindness, and patience.

Way to go!
In KDE right clicking on the K-button in the lower left-hand corner brings up a menu that includes "Menu Editor". It's quite easy to use: basically you (1) tell the menu entry the name and location of your app (2) pick an pretty icon (optional) and (3) place your created entry in the section where you want it to appear (for Thunderbird "Internet" might be an appropriate place). I guess whatever desktop you use would also have a menu editor.
Executables for packages usually go in /usr/bin (you don't need to put them there; that's done automatically)

Executables that you compile yourself usually go in /usr/local/bin (most "make" scripts make /usr/local/bin the default location)

Executables that you grab from other sites (Mozilla, Openoffice, Adobe, Sun Java, etc. usually go in /opt (at least that's the usage in Debian).
Cheers,
jdk

No problem. Welcome to the club. Now all you have to do is start reading xkcd.com and you'll be a full fledged geek.