In Linux Mint, FIrefox works without installing it
Hi. I was suddenly having unexpected problems to log in in a site (https://www.lanacion.com.ar/). So I updated FF but the problem persists. Then, I uninstalled FF, downloaded it again from the repository and installed again, but the problem persists. Then, I downloaded directly rom the Mozilla site, expand it in the desktop and double click the program icon. The program opened and I was able to log into the site I was trying to. Interesting enough, the browser opens a lot faster than when installed. My question is: everywhere on the web the response is "you have to install the program" or "the program is already installed in your distro", which is true in my case, but one day stopped to work properly. BUT I'm not installing it, and it works apparently well... ¿how can it be? Thanks in advance for your reply. -Enrique.
Chosen solution
The tarbal is basically a archive. You just download, untar and run the Firefox script is the basics. You just have to manually create the launchers/shortcuts yourself with the icon your choice whether of the supplied ones (in icons folder) or another.
Note to make sure you get Firefox updates from Mozilla the Firefox folder for the user account needs read/write permissions. If you are the only user then putting Firefox folder in Home is a popular easy way.
A long time ago Mozilla did for a short while try a so called installer version for Linux. It basically failed. Why well it was basically a extra couple steps compared to tarbal for the same end result. Plus people needed to be be instructed on the basics of how to use this called installer, even though many of these users would need help on using the tarbal version too.
Firefox Releases for Windows used to have .zip version in early on days which was similar. You basically just download, extract and ran the firefox.exe as there was no installer. The problem was during when Firefox Releases got to 1.0.x the number of new Firefox users grew substantially and many did not know to not mix the installer and zip versions (caused issues like crashes due to mixing, they thought they had to mix to keep their settings which is in Profile(s)) and many people had to be instructed on thee basics of how to setup the .zip version because they downloaded that instead of the setup installer.
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So you're running the downloaded version of Firefox from the folder. see screenshots I only use the distro version for troubleshooting. If you open a konsole or terminal and run firefox &, it should show an error if it tries to run the distro version that's not installed.
Modified
Thanks for your reply. Yes, Im running it from its folder. It surprised me because I read in many forums that it has to be installed. So it's OK to run it this way?
On Linux, you do not install Firefox. You merely extract the files in the tar.bz2 archive to a folder and run/launch Firefox via ./firefox.
Chosen Solution
The tarbal is basically a archive. You just download, untar and run the Firefox script is the basics. You just have to manually create the launchers/shortcuts yourself with the icon your choice whether of the supplied ones (in icons folder) or another.
Note to make sure you get Firefox updates from Mozilla the Firefox folder for the user account needs read/write permissions. If you are the only user then putting Firefox folder in Home is a popular easy way.
A long time ago Mozilla did for a short while try a so called installer version for Linux. It basically failed. Why well it was basically a extra couple steps compared to tarbal for the same end result. Plus people needed to be be instructed on the basics of how to use this called installer, even though many of these users would need help on using the tarbal version too.
Firefox Releases for Windows used to have .zip version in early on days which was similar. You basically just download, extract and ran the firefox.exe as there was no installer. The problem was during when Firefox Releases got to 1.0.x the number of new Firefox users grew substantially and many did not know to not mix the installer and zip versions (caused issues like crashes due to mixing, they thought they had to mix to keep their settings which is in Profile(s)) and many people had to be instructed on thee basics of how to setup the .zip version because they downloaded that instead of the setup installer.