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FWIW I installed Firefox Quantum 57beta12 today but as I usually do by just copying the unpacked tar.gz into /usr/lib64/firefox(version) and symlinking the executable in /usr/bin. All I can say is "FINALLY !!!" I have been really discouraged with FF lately for being such a memory leaker (I know, some of that is due to some websites, but that is fixable) and 56.0 was little better. Version 57 (Quantum) is aptyly named because it is a huge improvement. Thank you, Mozilla! glad to see the boys in the back room still have the chops.

My apologies if this is slightly OT since it is not about compiling but I hoped some needed encouragement was in order. It's gettin' GOOD!

I just want to point this out as a really terrible method of installing software that no one should follow.

Well please then do inform me as to why, specifically with Firefox, since I have been doing this exactly in this manner since version 3 and never once encountered a problem. I'm not lazy. I still compile custom kernels but a browser? Please, why? and to what advantage.

FWIW this was how Mozilla recommended it be installed way back in v3. No experience I've encountered has dissuaded me, but I can be convinced with sufficient reason and evidence.

Its bad practice and leads to franken installs. I'll assume you know that and don't care, my post is for the benefit of those that do not know.

I agree. I've been very impressed with the betas. I even thought version 56 was a big improvement, but 57 is even better. In my opinion of course.

You are just restating your case with no explanation as to how it is bad practice or what you mean exactly by a "franken install". I'm assuming the latter refers to stitching together mismatched parts but how can that be so if there have been zero problems in just shy of 20 years? Firefox is a self-contained blob which is how it got to be a cross platform app in the first place.

So please, either retract your opinion or offer some kind of precise claim with evidence at least equaling the value of nearly 20 years experience. So far you haven't even given mere anecdotal information. If you don't get thorough and specific your opinion seems baseless and is reduced to FUD.

It's perfectly okay to prefer a different option but it's not okay to just state "That's bad!" with no explanation or qualifiers.

I think it's mainly because you're putting untracked files into the /usr/ directory, which is typically reserved for packages. For someone who is familiar with how Linux works, this is no big deal, but for others, they may think that extracting packages to /usr/lib64/program-name/ is the way to install packages, which would likely lead to us needing to eventually fix their system.

If you want to actually have a package, you can use ruario's latest-firefox.sh script and then just pass the version you want to use (since it only will find the latest stable or ESR versions automatically).

If you're root, you can use the -i to have the script install the package (or upgrade an existing one).

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@enorbet: I'm not here to spoon feed you, I just don't want to see future newbies following your methods and requiring us to untangle their mess later. If you want to go against tried and proven methods that is your prerogative, but don't mislead others in the process. Its outright unsavory.

Thank you bassmadrigal for your clear and concise explanation. I suppose it is difficult to imagine that people, maybe especially Slackware people, don't bother to view READSME or INSTALL files or do any sort of research. In the case of Firefox reading up first was how I found that was how Mozilaa's self-contained blob could be (and iirc, should be) installed on systems that don't package or PPA their own "OEM" versions.

In a sdimilar vein, and a warning to newbies, all blobs are not created equally. For example, the newest (and forced) update to Discord communications app comes either as a .deb or as a so-called blob BUT they both require libc++ so unless your distro already has it it won't work correctly and liubc++ doesn't come with it and all of it's dozen or so dependencies. Thankfully, in my case - one who doesn't use Discord enough to warrant an hour or so of dependency resolution for something so casual, thy have a browser version that is decent.

The reason I bring that up here is manifold. First, as stated as a warning about blobs but also a note that because no files are replaced in Slackware the worst that can happen is the app doesn't run correctly. Anytime I don't use or create a package (tracked in /var/log/packages) I make notes on what was installed where in my Documents directory so I can be certain of complete removal in that worst case scenario.

normally if a package is not available I "roll my own" but in the case of Firefox I have never stuck with what version came stock in Slack, so it gets updated a lot and it's convenient to use Mozilla's endorsed (and so far always successful) method. Symlinking makes it easy to have 2 or more versions available for comparing, testing and/or tweaking.

ping orbea - Sir I take offense at your arrogant condescension and spin doctoring. Still you have failed to produce any backing for your "self-evident" opinions and "sppon feed" remarks are completely dismissive and obviously inaccurate for someone who has been using Slackware since version 7, almost 20 years ago. Were you a Slack user then? if you were then you should know requiring "spoon feeding" was no way to grow to love Slackware. In most cases it never attracted such people then. It has become substantially more newbie friendly since then. Worse still you have characterized my install method as "untried and unproven" and that is completely irresponsible since it is absolutely untrue as I stated more than once here.

! Mozilla recommended this method and I have proved it myself by having done this possibly as many as 40-50 times in 20 years without problems Is that clear now? It doesn't always apply to all apps. In fact usually doesn't even when called "self-contained blob". However in the case of Firefox it does work just fine and is officially endorsed, so kindly stow your jump to an unwarranted conclusion and keep it to yourself, or better, realize you were incorrect in this case and there's zero mess to clean up.

Oh yeah, and since I never stated this method was good for anything but Firefox, I never misled anyone. Anyone who jumps to such an assumption without reading docs deserves the learning experience, especially since "mess" is hardly accurate since no damage is done that a simple "rm" command won't fix.

I agree with enorbet. I have Firefox, Thunderbird and MariaDB all installed in /usr/local just by unpacking their files. No problems with any of the three. Just point your application launcher to the correct directory and everything works just fine.

I, too, have been doing this for years. No problems. Upgrades are very easy doing this.

1 members found this post helpful.

Mozilla does not recommend unpacking the blob into /usr/, rather it recommends using package management first and then if you don't have a new enough version, it recommends unpacking it into the user's home directory. So, saying your method is officially endorsed seems to be a bit of a stretch. If it works for you, great, but many people do not do the type of documentation you do, so suggesting this is a good method to install newer firefox versions for anyone might lead to other people having trouble down the line.

And if you're updating Firefox as frequently as you say, then it really might be worth using ruario's script I mentioned above. This way, you get an actual Slackware package and it greatly simplifies the upgrade process. You just need to find the right version string to pass (since I wouldn't have thought the -SSL would be part of the filename).

This is totally irrelevant to the discussion, but wouldn't a "quantum" improvement be a very small one?

Perhaps at sometime since some earlier version (I don't recall when I stopped reading Firefox install docs as likely redundant after working fine so many times. I'd venture a guess it was in the 20s or 30s) Mozilla has chosen to play it safer with such a wide variety of Linux distros altered for auto-dependency, but it was the officially endorsed means early on and as stated has never failed me. Again wherever you choose to unpack it and simply link the executable, it is possible to have multiple versions available so if a new one doesn't work just go back to linking the older one. It takes less than 5 minutes and is foolproof. Thankfully good ol' vanilla Slack has no such package management artificially "flavored" complications.

I truly don't see how going through more steps, as good as ruario's script is, is simpler. Look, it is so trivial that you or anyone can try it for yourself, in your Home directory if you like. Just untar and symlink the executable - Done! The only changes I've ever run across is that some plugins, like Java if you use it, require manual installation and that too takes less than 5 minutes.

Proportionately it is a leap of considerable distance/energy.