# But people say Linux is awesome



## petedread (Nov 17, 2014)

I have a Acer Aspire1, tiny little laptop thing, that a friend has asked me to update for her. She wants FireFox updating. I have downloaded the update but can not figure out how to, well, do anything with it. I have seen tutorials on youtube that I have no hope of understanding. They all seems to say the same or very similar things that involves a lot of typing commands into a command prompt type thing. 

I did this for her last year but can not remember how. I know I found a very simple way to do it, but can not remember.

Can any one help?


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Nov 17, 2014)

What distro are you using? Also if it has a software center you can use that. If it is Ubuntu the Firefox should already installed and it updates itself.


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## petedread (Nov 17, 2014)

Thanks for reply.

Distro? Distribution? Xfce 4.4? could that be it? I found this under help.

I have tried running "live update" but it always says error 22 update server is busy now try again later.

just found this. Limpus Linux lite v1.0.7.E


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## Easy Rhino (Nov 17, 2014)

Oh, Limpus... you mean Linpus?


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## Blue-Knight (Nov 17, 2014)

petedread said:


> Distro? Distribution? Xfce 4.4? could that be it? I found this under help.


in a terminal type one of the three:
  cat /etc/issue.net
  cat /etc/lsb-release
  lsb_release -a

My distribution:
DISTRIB_ID=LinuxMint
DISTRIB_RELEASE=17
DISTRIB_CODENAME=qiana
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Linux Mint 17 Qiana"

Linux Mint 17 Qiana.



petedread said:


> But people say Linux is awesome


It is.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Nov 17, 2014)

Linpus is a crippled version of Linux and come nowhere to allowing you to see the full potential of Linux. Maybe you can try to install Mint or Ubuntu.


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## Easy Rhino (Nov 17, 2014)

ThE_MaD_ShOt said:


> Linpus is a crippled version of Linux and come nowhere to allowing you to see the full potential of Linux. Maybe you can try to install Mint or Ubuntu.



Judging by those laptop specs Ubuntu (even Mint) would bring that thing to its knees.


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## petedread (Nov 17, 2014)

Thanks Blue-knight. The first two terminal commands came back with "no such file or directory" and the third "command not found"


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## petedread (Nov 17, 2014)

I'm not put off by what linux can do but by how much there is to learn. It seems that I would have to learn a lot of terminal commands.


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## ThE_MaD_ShOt (Nov 17, 2014)

Easy Rhino said:


> Judging by those laptop specs Ubuntu (even Mint) would bring that thing to its knees.


There are also Linux distro that are more robust that will run on low powered machines. Lubuntu for one.


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## Blue-Knight (Nov 17, 2014)

petedread said:


> Thanks Blue-knight. The first two terminal commands came back with "no such file or directory" and the third "command not found"


Sorry... That distribution is unknown to me.



			
				petedread said:
			
		

> I'm not put off by what linux can do but by how much there is to learn. It seems that I would have to learn a lot of terminal commands.


It depends what you want to do... A normal user (internet and office) will rarely need to use CLI (command line interface) program.

But the most useful programs are primarily available as CLI (that's why typing commands is quite often).

You'll only need patience, time for reading, and practice.


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## petedread (Nov 17, 2014)

Is there not a executable file in the downloaded firefox archive?


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## petedread (Nov 17, 2014)

Blue-Knight said:


> Sorry... That distribution is unknown to me.
> 
> 
> It depends what you want to do... A normal user (internet and office) will rarely need to use CLI (command line interface) program.
> ...



Would I have to choose a distribution to learn?


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## Blue-Knight (Nov 17, 2014)

petedread said:


> Would I have to choose a distribution to learn?


Most systems commands will be the same, the only things that change a lot from distribution to distribution is the way it handles packages, "distribution system" structure and configuration files...

But many distributions are simply based on another known one (e.g. linux mint is based on ubuntu).

You can choose one you prefer, there are many. The most popular are: Mint, Ubuntu, Lubuntu, Xubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Puppy Linux, Arch...

Some are better for starters, some are better for both starters and experienced users, some are made with experienced users in mind or a specific purpose.



petedread said:


> Is there not a executable file in the downloaded firefox archive?


It may have, but it is inside the folder (maybe /usr/bin/* or another). It may need to be properly installed before it is executed otherwise it may not start.


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## ZenZimZaliben (Nov 17, 2014)

http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/upgrade-firefox-on-linux/ - one of those commands will work.


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## petedread (Nov 17, 2014)

Blue-Knight said:


> Most systems commands will be the same, the only things that change a lot from distribution to distribution is the way it handles packages, "distribution system" structure and configuration files...
> 
> But many distributions are simply based on another known one (e.g. linux mint is based on ubuntu).
> 
> ...



At the moment it all seems very overwhelming. I will eventually find a good article on how to get started with Linux, but for now I have too much on my plate with work and my new business.
Read a lot of stuff today. One really crazy thing I read was a guy who lost his home page when updating firefox, so he showed the forum how he fixed it, it must have been 4 pages of text! lol.


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