Upgrading to Firefox 2.0?

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From:  <phiscock-g851W1bGYuGnS0EtXVNi6w at public.gmane.org>
| Reply-To:  <tlug-lxSQFCZeNF4 at public.gmane.org>
| To:  <tlug-lxSQFCZeNF4 at public.gmane.org>
| Subject: [TLUG]: Upgrading to Firefox 2.0?
| 
| Does anyone in the TLUG Great Collective Mind  have a pointer to
| step-by-step instructions for upgrading to Firefox 2.0 on (Suse) Linux?
| 
| >From the Firefox web site the Windows upgrade is a one-button click and
| proceeds seamlessly.
| 
| The Linux upgrade requires manual intervention and comes with essentially
| *no* information. The new files have a different configuration than the
| old ones, so it's not a simple replacement. Grrr.
| 
| Or can this somehow be done automagically via the Suse web site?
| 
| Pointers appreciated...

1) as far as I can tell, there isn't much reason to update from
   1.5.0.7 to 2.0.  There are few improvements.  Some things that were
   add-ons are now standard.

2) you could easily add firefox 2.0 to your system without replacing
   the one that is part of your distro.  You might even be able to
   remove the old firefox package (this depends on dependencies).

3) to update the actual installation package, you probably need to
   wait for SuSE to issue the update.  Otherwise the packaging system
   will get confused (and you will pay for that in pain somehow).

The new firefox is easy to tack onto your system:

- download the tar file.

- unpack it somewhere (your choice, but don't step on existing files)

- it unpacks into a directory "firefox"

- if the directory is /my/silly/spot/firefox, then you run this
  firefox by typing /my/silly/spot/firefox/firefox to shell
  (or the moral equivalent).

Note: firefox and mozilla startup scripts are annoyingly smart.  If
a copy of firefox or mozilla is running, invoking the startup script
will just get another window from the running copy.  This prevents you
from running two different versions at the same time.  In fact, if you
try to run firefox on another machine, with your machine as the
display server, it will reach across the wire and just create another
window on a firefox or mozila running on your local machine.  And then
complain when file:// URLs don't work.

For extra points, figure out how to install flash.
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