Why does it have to be so difficult? Why can't you just double click on an icon and follow a stupid little wizard?!
I'm trying to install Mozilla Thunderbird and can't find a decent tutorial anywhere.

Any reason not to just use Yast, and install MozillaThunderbird-x.y-z.i586.rpm ?

Why aren't you using YAST? It makes things so simple in SuSE. And Firefox is a piece of cake - all you need to do is extract the files and read the README or INSTALL file to find out what to do.

You could also look into Apt4RPM for SuSE.

Is the version up to date with YaST? I used apt and got ThunderBird 0.8.
I looked at the site and I must agree with the thread starter: This does not make sense for a multi-platform mail client.
The FAQ features the question:
"How do I install Mozilla Thunderbird?"
with the answer
"For Windows, unzip the file into a folder of your choosing. Launch thunderbird.exe."
Thank you, immensely useful. Usually mozilla.org detects one's system type, but I picked this info up using Firefox on Linux.

Anyway,
if you download the latest 1.0 version, you get a tar.gz file. You should hit the terminal and untar the file with
This will create a thunderbird folder.
And, well, that's pretty much it. you can then run the ThunderBird executable with
from within the folder. If you want to create a keyboard or toolbar shortcut to it, it should simply point to this executable.
There is no installation into the system as such.

I couldn't find Thunderbird in RPM format, so yast can't help me. I read the readme file and it directs me to a website that provides no help at all. I'll try what you said, OSourceDiplomat, when I get hope.
Thanks all.
Billy

Wrote to the fellow who maintains the ThunderBird FAQ and asked him to include the Linux way in the "How do I install Mozilla Thunderbird?" section.

Because using a stupid little installer you'd be stuck using whatever version of shared libraries shipped with the de facto issue of your Operating System (a la windows) rather than being able to upgrade individual aspects of your operating system and have new programs take immediate advantage of them. So if you want a simple solution in the long run there are two options:

1. Statically linked programs which can be enormous, or
2. Everyone uses the same version of everything on their computer, defeating one of the principles of free software (that's free as in freedom)

You may need to update your Yast rpm sources from a nearby mirror. It's definitely there on our local mirron, anyway (though as OSourceDiplomat said, it isn't the most current version).

Cheers,

mj

Cool, I'll try that first.

Are you suggesting I do that or are you saying that's what you did?
Thanks,
Billy

Good answer

Did you try rpmfind.net? That's where I found it. Try this link: http://fr2.rpmfind.net/linux/rpm2htm...mit=Search+...

WOW! That was easy! It worked like a charm! Just for future reference... how would I know what to type instead of ./thunderbird ?
Thanks a lot guys!
Billy

Also, it seems to save my settings and everything, but to open the program up again after restarting, I have to go to the terminal and type ./thunderbird. Is this how it should be? Should I untar it to a different folder? And can I make a shortcut icon to run it?
Thanks again,
Billy

I wrote the operator. Hope he'll put it on the FAQ.
What you have is basically a folder you can put anywhere. I downloaded it - I have a folder called /home/morten/downloads/ which is the default FireFox download folder - and untarred it and came up with the folder /home/morten/downloads/thunderbird/. In this case, if I wanted to create a desktop/toolbar shortcut to it, I should link to the executable thunderbird, ie the shortcut should point to /home/morten/downloads/thunderbird/thunderbird. Also, in the untarred thunderbird folder, there is a folder called icons, so you can get the correct icon for your shortcut there.
Now, I didn't really want it there. Your e-mail client in the Download folder doesn't make sense... so I put in the /opt folder, which is the tradional default folder for programs not installed by default. I moved it as root, as the user doesn't have write permissions. Of course, you could just create a /home/your_name/programs/ folder and put the thunderbird folder in that.
Where you put the program is not very important, since it will look for or create a mail file in your Home directory. So if the path is right, there is no problem. The path to the mail file can be seen in ThunderBird at edit > account settings > Local Folders.