How does a normal average human being actually install waterfox on linux mint

[wilfy100]

I would love to try Waterfox, problem is I am not a University trained computer programmer with a degree in computer science. Is it actually possible to install Waterfox in at least a somewhat simple and straightforward way. I really like Linux but things like this continue to hold it back from the average user. Is there any hope, or is it just the geeks trying to keep it for themselves and keep out the great unwashed?

[adamp01]

Hi @wilfy100,

Because there are so many different Linux distros, we just use a very basic and, admittedly, not very user friendly approach for distributing Waterfox. The steps to run would be:

1. Download the tarball at: https://www.waterfox.net/download/
2. Extract the tarball by entering the following in a terminal tar -xvf <filename>
3. Run ./<extracted_folder>/waterfox

[wilfy100]

I tried this, I entered tar -xvf <waterfox-G4.1.3.2.en-US.linux-x86_641.tar.bz2> but I just got the following error, bash: syntax error near unexpected token `newline' I do not understand what this means. Is this just to extract the file, I can do that using a GUI if it is.

[wilfy100]

Tried using instruction 3 ./</home/wilfy/Documents/waterfox> with the manually extracted files but got the same error bash: syntax error near unexpected token `newline' Any help would be appreciated but I don't think I will succeed.

[adamp01]

Hey @wilfy100 - Remove the < and >. Also number three would end up being: /home/wilfy/Documents/waterfox/waterfox. The first waterfox is the directory and the second the actual binary.

[adamp01]

And to answer the first question, yes the command is just to extract the contents of the tarball.

[wilfy100]

I have had another go, several in fact. This was the last attempt wilfy@wilfy-X570-AORUS-ELITE:~$ Run .//home/wilfy/Documents/waterfox/waterfox

Command 'Run' not found, did you mean:

command 'zun' from deb python3-zunclient (4.0.0-0ubuntu1)

Try: sudo apt install

I presume sudo apt install will not work, I wondered if the capitol R in Run was the problem so I used a lower case r, all that happened was the error message got bigger. run .//home/wilfy/Documents/waterfox/waterfox

Command 'run' not found, did you mean:

command 'rn' from deb trn4 (4.0-test77-12) command 'runc' from deb runc (1.1.0-0ubuntu1~20.04.1) command 'crun' from deb crun (0.12.1+dfsg-1) command 'zun' from deb python3-zunclient (4.0.0-0ubuntu1) command 'grun' from deb grun (0.9.3-2) command 'runq' from deb exim4-daemon-heavy (4.93-13ubuntu1.5) command 'runq' from deb exim4-daemon-light (4.93-13ubuntu1.5) command 'runq' from deb sendmail-bin (8.15.2-18) command 'srun' from deb slurm-client (19.05.5-1) command 'zrun' from deb moreutils (0.63-1) command 'rup' from deb rstat-client (4.0.1-9)

Try: sudo apt install I would imagine the run command is quite a basic one, I am not sure why it is not recognized. I am running Linux mint cinnamon in a very standard form. I do very much appreciate your help is there anything you could suggest to get it to work. As is quite obvious I am very much at the "copy and paste" level with the command line. I understand the power of the command line (to do good or bad things) but it is like a foreign language to me, the command has to be 1000% correct to have any hope of it working. I understand you saying that all the many various distros make a non command line installer difficult but could I ask please that one was made to cover Debian (Ubuntu/Mint) as this would target a lot of users with one hit. Especially as these are the beginner distros quite often. Cheers Ian

[adamp01]

If you just enter /home/wilfy/Documents/waterfox/waterfox in the terminal with nothing else, does that work for you?

[EdithDehoyos]

arch users benefit greatly from the AUR, every non-arch user realizes this eventually

[the-black-eagle]

@wilfy100 Run means "Run this command", not type in "Run". Commands in the terminal are really powerful and you can do everything required, but! the learning of what to type and where is sometimes confusing, especially if you are coming from a point and click OS.

So if someone says Run ./<extracted_folder>/waterfox that means, type in (in the terminal) ./<name_of_directory_you_extracted_waterfox_to>/waterfox. Replace <name_of_directory_you_extracted_waterfox_to> with the name of the actual directory. Ignore the <> bits, they are there to show you you have to change something when you type it in.

E.G, if I did cd ~/ <- means move to my home directory (assuming this is where the downloaded file is) and then tar -xvf waterfox-G4.1.3.2.en-US.linux-x86_641.tar.bz2, then assuming it extracted to a directory called waterfox I would type in ./waterfox/waterfox to start it. To try and be clear, ./ means in the current directory so linux looks in the current dir, finds the waterfox dir, looks in that, finds waterfox and starts it. if you do cd waterfox to where all the files are then to run it you would do ./waterfox. So, look in this directory for the file waterfox. Linux doesn't need a run command, it knows which files are executable and which aren't.

If the file is executable, then it will run. HTH

BTW, many thanks to the devs for waterfox !!

[Talk2Giuseppe]

@wilfy100 - You have a very reasonable request. All the nonsense from the "techy" people are why programs like this suffer. Hundreds of other apps figure out how to create the 2 or 3 installable packages for download to the major distros. And obviously, this group knows how to do it as well. Instead, they would rather frustrate you with tech speak. From experience, move on... Try Vivalid or Slimjet instead. No reason to have to get frustrated when other options are available.

To the developers: You could have, like so many other projects on github, presented us with a series of copy/paste commands. Your unwillingness to spend the time will be wasted in forums like this showing us "losers" how smart you are. In the end, us "losers" will simply flip you off and find an alternative. Good job!

[wilfy100]

I do have to agree with Talk2Giuseppe. I would like to be fluent with the command line, I can memorize some of the simpler stuff such as to do updates. However there is a steep learning curve that requires lots of time and perseverance to do more. If I had unlimited free time and this was my only hobby then that might happen. It seems to me that things can be super simple and quick if the software is available through the software manager, also some online installations can be fairly easy. After that its give it a try, realize its lots of command line black magic and then look for an alternative package that hopefully will install. I do have hope that things will eventually get better, this is based on the improvements I have seen in Linux over the nearly ten years that I have been using it. I can state with confidence that Linux has saved me from an awful lot of Windows misery and for that I am very grateful. I do appreciate all the time and effort the developers have put in but in truth there is still some way to go. I wonder if a certain installation method/procedure will become a widely accepted standard at some point.

[BillFleming]

distributing a .run file would help