Seems like the only way to install latest Thunderbird is to download its tar file.
Now, i can unzip it into a folder in same download section.
But i feel that it isn’t the best spot for it.
Also, just wondering if the app will update thereafter when installed (say in Titan KDE)?
What would you like to achieve?
So, it is safe to unzip in “download” section?
Will the app be updatable just the same as all the other apps?
Really not an expert at unzipping tar files.
Depends on your definition of “safe”. The Download section is usually pretty cluttered, however from a technical perspective there is no difference from which location you start the binary from, except you might encounter permission issues if it is in a location you don’t have access to, which is not the case for you in this situation.
Depends on how all the other apps update and if Firefox does it a certain way. I’d say it should most likely work, but it does not have to.
Time to find out which “place” would be best to unzip it to…
On the other hand, if it works in download folder…
You should ask yourself whether you really need the very latest thunderbird. The version that comes with your package system is easier to install, and will update automatically along with your normal system updates.
If you must have the latest, you have to do all the installing and updating yourself. Dont put a hand install in /usr/bin, that is reserved for installs controlled by the package system. For a hand install use /usr/local/bin, or make a bin directory in your home directory.
Before you can install, you have to unpack the tar file. Make a special subdirctory in your home directory, and do it there. Depending on what is inside the tar file, you may have to configure and compile it. That is a complicated job and you may have to install other things to make the compile work. Test the binary there, before you install it.
Dont install 2 versions of thurderbird. If you have the package version installed, remove it before using your hand installed version
I agree with this. It seems to be the convention and also makes sense.
After some 25+ years of misadventures - I ALWAYS list the content of a tar file before extracting it :
tar tvf tarfile.tar(.gz .xz etc - if it’s compressed)…
That way you can see if it’s all files in the “root” of the archive first off…
Then decide where you want to plonk it - e.g.
mkdir $HOME/tbird
change to that folder
cd $HOME/tbird
then
tar xvf $HOME/Downloads/thunderbird.tar
If you’re not happy with the location you untarred it first time (assuming all the files are in a “thunderbird” parent folder?) round - maybe just move it :
mv $HOME/Downloads/thunderbird $HOME/. (don’t always need that “dot” at then but I ALWAYS do that - to be sure, to be sure).
As for whether or not Thunderbird can update it - I don’t know - don’t use an email fat client for any system - I ALWAYS use the thin client in a web browser, for everything “email”. There are some products that can, e.g. TOR browser (which is firefox based) can update itself even though I run it as a “portable” app off my home folder (I plonk such applications in $HOME/sbin/ )…
@danielson ,
Take note of the good reply you have from @daniel.m.tripp
Daniel has a lot of experience with this sort of thing
While I have done this–I downloaded Thunderbird to get the latest version rather than wait–I have a preference for using what the distro developers have included in the distro or the package manager. Seems like there are fewer problems, especially for my level of user.
That said, I’ve been happier with Evolution rather than Thunderbird for the past year or so. Linux is all about choice.
As sadly expected, some of the most popular extensions are not compatible with this latest version. Wish they’d put their act together on this. Especially with regards to popular extensions!
Just out of curiosity, I loaded Titan into Gnome Boxes and gave it a trial spin–nicely polished and attractive, like Neon, like Kubuntu, like most distros using KDE 25. The package manager will install Thunderbird for you, so I assume that’s when you found out it wasn’t compatible with the extensions you wanted. What exactly did you want, if you don’t mind my asking?
Compact Header for one:
GContactSync for two:
Titan is great distro!
Just starting out, but should be one to keep an eye on this year.
I had a read about Titan. It is rather new, has not made it into Distrowatch yet. Sounds rather like MX… a Debian derivative with lots of helpful custom additions.
New it is indeed!
Matthew has just revamped Titan’s homepage which better exposes the project:
https://techcafe757.wixsite.com/titanlinux
Even if there are more changes that will come eventually to the homepage etc., the distro itself is pretty solid!
Interestingly - I learned something new about “tar” only a couple years ago (2019?).
I was using busybox (rescue mode in Debian, or Ubuntu? Or was it Oracle Linux?) - anyway - I was trying to untar a tar archive like this
tar xzvfp compressed.tar.gz
and it was barfing / failing and I was pulling my hair out… Doh! What could be wrong???
Finally I tried
tar xzvpf compressed.tar.gz
the positioning of the “f” (file) operand is vital in this context, but most other implementations of GNU tar will let you plonk it anywhere… Needless to say - now I ALWAYS plonk the “f” operand last… I should probably also force myself to go back to using “tar -xvpf archve.tar” - i.e. using the dash / hyphen… Because back in old SunOS (i.e. pre “Solaris”) you obviously had to use “-” with tar, I think SunOS (and later Solaris) got their tar implemenation from AT&T, not BSD or GNU (nearly all good Solaris admins would replace Sun’s “tar” with the GNU version - it was VASTLY superior).
Note also - most implementations on modern Linux distros, you don’t need the “z” for gzip archive (I think it’s “j” for xz ?) - tar already discovers this and takes appropriate action.
tar xf archive.tar(.gz, .xz, .z) should work on modern stuff (unless it’s a stripped down thing, like busybox)…
x = extract
t = list content of archive
v = verify (useful to see output of create, or extract, operation)
p = permission (i.e. save ownership UID:GID, or extract UID:GID info in archve)
z = gzip (also maybe .z from compress too - default when creating using “z” is gzip)
j = xz
c = create
a = append (this one often gives me the irits)
f = file (vs - e.g. the tape drive, a worm drive, some other output device)
Best to always plonk “f” at the VERY end of the operands…
Well I learn something every day
Showing my age here, but I have always used
gzip - dc file.tgz | tar xvf -
so I guess I never fell into the ‘f’ position trap
tar did not always have the decompress built in
No - certainly not in Solaris anyway (one of the reasons we always try to replace it with GNU tar)… Been so long (~20 years?) since I last used AIX or IRIX or DG-UX or Digital UNIX in “anger” - so can’t remember if any of those ever had it either, AIX is the only one still around… Trying to get a job in a AIX shop is damn tricky - never been able to get my foot in the door (but occasionally supported it in mixed environments)… I read somewhere recently (last ~5 years or so) that it was possible to emulate a PowerPC using QEMU on x86_64 FreeBSD, sufficient to actually install AIX (there was a “thing” called PearPC which let you emulate a PowerPC, but it only worked to emulate that arch for MacOS OSX).
Nearly everything in “userland” shell on Linux is a VAST improvement over what was available on the big fat super expensive UNIXs (to be fair, many of them were essentially free if you ran them on the vendor’s hardware - except maybe DG-UX).
