I just installed slackware 10 and I have some n00b questions that i can't seem to find the answers for

1 I can only access mozilla if I log in as root ... if I log into my user account and tick applications>Internet>mozilla it just acts like I didn't tell it to do anything ... and it does this with most other apps in there although some I can use(like web browser, but it opens epiphany and i don't like that one) ... I'm thinking this has to do with permissions .. how do I set it so my user account has admin privileges or whatever the linux equivalent is? I only have one user account and that's all I will ever have ..

2 how do I install applications that are in ".tar.gz" or ".tgz" or ."rpm" format? i want to use firefox and amsn but I can't seem to figure out how to install them?

1) known issue - upgrade your package... which brings us to:

2)
.tgz = likely a slack package -- use installpkg mypak.tgz
.tar.gz (or .tar.bz2) = compressed source

.tar.gz = use:(this is quickie -- you should read INSTALL/README)

.tar.bz2 = same as ^^ but on line 1, use -xjvf

.rpm -- well... you won't have that by default on slack, so worry about the others first (rpm = redhat package)

It is late here so I will skip the irst question, having a hard time thinking, lol.

installpkg works with .tgz files.
rpm -i works with .rpm files, if you have rpm install
with tar.gz do:
tar xvfz <file name>
./configure
make
make install

For rpm packages it is better to do the following:
That turns the rpm package into a slack package (.tgz).
Then you can install it by using the installpkg command:
MagicMan

Just a couple words of caution.

For rpm packages, sorry but, it is probably better to keep looking. Using them can be problematic at times. They will work sometimes if you can not find your package in any other way. I would recommend compiling your own before using it though.

.tgz packags from linuxpackages.net are going to be slackware pachages that you can installpkg. FreeBSD packages are often .tgz and you can not install them. You will also occasionally run into some source files that are archived in a .tgz packages. So be careful and read the page you download from.

yes thanx -- do NOT use rpm2tgz as a newbie -- you won't be happy... slack = "most unix like" redhat is more like "most windows like"

they use different directories for things... take example of redhat's use of /etc/sysconfig... installing an rpm on slack with no care for cross-system compatability will lead to trouble. LP suggests after running rpm2tgz that you go through the tgz by hand to ensure slackware compliance... this is not exactly newbie-friendly