[nflug] firefox update

[Cyber Source]

Ok, I know this topic came up before but I will repeat what I replied 
with then.
  One of the reasons that "it just works in windows" is because by 
default every user becomes an admin or most users run as a single user 
that works in conjunction as Administrator. And there aren't any 
problems that occur with the results of that (rolls eyes).

  For an easy way to update Firefox or Thunderbird, Start the app with 
the same path that the user does (for the app in question) from a 
terminal as root. I did this this morning for firefox, did the check 
updates (wasn't greyed out) and then it went and got the updates, it 
wanted to restart firefox, so I did, went back to the check updates 
button, it said that the partial update failed and wanted to do a full 
update, so I did, it went and got the full updates and then restarted 
firefox, all was well. When I ran firefox as peter, it seen that I had 
some themes it needed updates for, it went and found them, installed 
them, all was good.
  Now, ideally, what should be sent to the developers at Mozilla is a 
request to have the "check for updates" button for the Linux apps 
request a root password and then run the updates as root. Updating the 
apps can break things, some extensions and themes previously in use 
don't always work with newer versions of the apps, etc.. So, letting a 
user who might not realize the implications of the updates just update 
the browser because he wants to, can be a bad thing.
  If the apps were installed in user land like Joe's was, running the 
updates as himself should not be a problem, so long as the files were 
actually owned by him, etc..
  You should send an email to Mozilla requesting the "check for updates" 
button to run as root and prompt for root's password, that would be ideal.
  I see stuff like this all the time for our Linux users. I had a client 
the other day complaining about her son not being able to install the 
Pro version of LimeWire. I was happy to inform her that that is a good 
thing and went into all the details of how and why windows boxes get so 
f**ked up because junior is installing all this shit. Bottom line is, 
they either learn the proper way to install things or don't install 
things. Improper software installations (or bad software and the viruses 
they allow/cause/whatever) account for pretty much all the windows work 
we do.
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