Installing the latest version of Mozilla apps with Ubuntuzilla

Because of the strict release cycle, Ubuntu doesn’t always include the latest versions of Mozilla applications. While Ubuntu 7.04 Feisty Fawn, for example, comes with the latest release of the Firefox browser, version 2.0 of the Thunderbird email client didn’t make it into the distro. While you can download Thunderbird 2.0 from Mozilla’s website and install it manually, there is an easier and better way to do this, courtesy of Ubuntuzilla. This Python script automates the entire installation process, and all you need to do is to answer a few simple questions. Better yet, Ubuntuzilla can install not only the latest versions of Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird, but also Seamonkey.

To install the desired Mozilla application, download the latest release of the Ubuntu package from SourceForge, double-click on the downloaded package, and install it. Then run the following command:

python ~/ubuntuzilla.py -a install -p thunderbird

If you want to install Firefox or Seamonkey, replace “thunderbird” with “firefox” or “seamonkey”. To remove the installed application, use the remove option:

python ~/ubuntuzilla.py -a remove -p thunderbird

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