# New to Linux, not new to Computer



## Chimuelo (Dec 2, 2006)

Hi, I'm new to Linux. I have some questions that may be fairly simple for some of you Linux gurus out there.

I installed Debian 3.1, then downloaded FireFox 2. All went surprisingly smooth. As someone recommended, I put the firefox-2.0.tar.gz into /opt/ folder then used 'tar' to unzip the files.

Now, questions. What is so special about /opt/ folder? and what does "opt" stand for? I've seen another poster who recommends putting the .gz file into /usr/bin/ folder. What is the standard (is there one?) and what are the different consequences of unzipping the file in a different folder?

Now, secnod set of questions. I'm using GNOME now, and after clicking on Applications -> Internet, I see 5 browsers, but no Mozilla FireFox 2.0. How can I create a link/shortcut that points to FireFox 2 from the GNOME menu?

Thank you so much in advance.


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## drgoodtrips (Nov 11, 2006)

Chimuelo said:


> Now, questions. What is so special about /opt/ folder? and what does "opt" stand for? I've seen another poster who recommends putting the .gz file into /usr/bin/ folder. What is the standard (is there one?) and what are the different consequences of unzipping the file in a different folder?


First off, in my experience, the "/opt" folder contains information about your desktop/GUI settings, and, I've always figured, stands for "options". If you're running Gnome or KDE as a desktop config, a lot of their info is stored in the /opt folder. In general, the directory structure of Linux (/opt, /bin, /home...etc or /etc  ) is done by convention. If you're used to Windows, think of these folders as "C:\Program Files", "C:\Documents and Settings", etc.

Secondly, where you put ".gz" files really depends on the files themselves. Generally, if I want to make a ".gz" file (though I usually name them whatever.tgz), I run a command like tar czfvp {directory}/*. What this does is take everything in the directory, archive it with tar, and then zip it with a standard zip utility. The end effect that this has is that when you "unzip/untar" it, it will create the zipped/tarred directory structure in the same directory in which you've put it. So, if I created foo.tgz and put it in /opt/, when I ran tar xzvfp /opt/foo.tgz on the target machine, it would create all of the directories and files as if /opt/ were its root directory.

One more thing - I have to wonder about a poster who recommends putting a zip/tar file into the usr/bin directory. /usr/bin is where basic Linux command executables go, and messing with that directory is "Advanced Linux" unless the instructions for a program you've downloaded specifically tell you to do something there. Even then, I'd be a little skeptical. Messing around in that directory is like going into the windows "C:\windows\system.ini" file and playing around. A standard convention for Linux programmers is to put any stuff that they've done in the /usr/local/bin directory, which can be invoked the same way as /usr/bin (depending on path variables). /usr/local/bin is generally used to contain any files that you think belong in /usr/bin but you've introduced to the system.



> Now, secnod set of questions. I'm using GNOME now, and after clicking on Applications -> Internet, I see 5 browsers, but no Mozilla FireFox 2.0. How can I create a link/shortcut that points to FireFox 2 from the GNOME menu?


Hmm... I'll have to defer to the experts on this one. It's been a long time since I've use Gnome with any regularity.


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## CouchMaster (May 26, 2003)

If you can find the FireFox folder you will discover an icon inside that looks like a gear (at least that's what it looked like on mine about 1 1/2 years ago) That icon will start FireFox if you click on it. So.......if you find the start icon just copy it to the desktop, or where ever you want , and you're good to go.


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## fenderfreek (Mar 14, 2006)

In Gnome, I believe you right click the launcher button and select "Menu Editor" to add app launchers. You'll need to point it to the binary file, which from your post, would seem to be in /opt, but idk why you would put it there.
'/usr/bin' is used for binaries and symlinks to them only. You should not put anything else in there. A much better solution would be to unzip/untar your firefox into something like '/usr/shared/firefox20', then make a link to its binary in '/usr/bin', so that whenever you type 'firefox20' or something of the sort, it will run it from the '/usr/shared/firefox20 'location, through the link in '/usr/bin'.

In my experience, /opt is generally for platform-independent things, most often used for configurations and files that are shared between users/distros on one machine.


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