I am a new Linux user and I have tried to download three things off the internet. each time I'm notified that the download was successfully completed, but I can't seem to run them. Can someone please tell me what I am suposed to do to run them? One of the downloads was Firefox.

Hi there! Welcome to LQ

Could you tell us the exact filenames of the items you have downloaded? The reason I ask is to determine what sort of files they are, and subsequently, exactly what you need to do to execute them.

As an example, the firefox you downloaded might be an archive of some sort, which needs to be extracted and perhaps installed, before you can use it.

Also, please tell us what Linux you are using.

Sasha

Linux is NOT Windows - http://linux.oneandoneis2.org/LNW.htm

I think the biggest difference is the mind set where people search the web for application. 99% of the time with linux this is not needed. The big well known distros have plenty of packages, Debian for example has over 25,000 packages in the repos, the same could be said for Ubuntu, Mandriva, Suse, etc.

Use the package management tools that your distribution provides. Also as GrapfruiTgirl pointed out please tell everyone what linux distribution you have installed. Most distros have good documentation.

What browser did you use to do the download?

In the browser preferences, what is designated as the default directory for downloads?

As root, you might try the "whereis" command: whereis [download filename]

More on whereis: http://www.computerhope.com/unix/uwhereis.htm