Platform: SuSe Pro 9.0

Hello,
Ok this is a really dumb question, but I'm new to Linux.
I downloaded FireFox 1.0 to /home/<my name>/Downloads/

I unzipped it to /home/<my name>/Downloads/firefox1.0/

I ran /home/<my name>/Downloads/firefox1.0/firefox-installer/firefox

I tried to install to /usr/bin/firefox1.0/ but it wouldn't let me create dir firefox1.0 (have to su to root?)

so I installed to /home/<my name>/bin/firefox1.0/

I also updated Firebird to Firefox 0.9.3 through Yast. Now in my "Start" --> Internet --> Browses --> Firefox, that is the link (0.9.3). If I run /home/<my name/bin/firefox1.0/firefox that start 1.0.
1) How do I unistall 0.9.3 and put 1.0 in the Internet --> Browsers group?

2) What are the guidelines for installing programs? Where should they be installed? Is /usr/bin where programs for all users go? Should a sub dir be created in /urs/bin for every program install? Or should they go in /home/<my name>/bin?

I shouldn't say I'm completely new to Linux; I got a CS degree programming on RedHat but I hardly touched the GUI and never administered or wrote any shell scripts - but I'm interested in Linux and impressed with SuSe. So - yes this is a dumb question, but a basic breakdown of the directory structure from someone would be cool.
3) Also, what driver do I need to make my fonts less blurry?
4) Should I uninstall Samba, DHCP Server, DNS Server, Kerberos client, TFTP server, etc. if I'm primarily using this machine for web development and home use?
5) Why does YaST want to give you older software? (PHP4, older MySQL, older FireFox, etc.)

Cheers!

well for firefox, you just have open up a shell or konsole, navigate to the directory where firefox lives and type:

./firefox

this should execute firefox

Ya, I can run it. Here's another question - Why doesn't FireFox pick the dir that you commonly install programs by default? It wanted to install in the same dir as where I ran the install program from.

BTW: I just noticed the newbie forum and this is where this probably belongs. Feel free to move this there!

Okey dokey Moved to Software though.