Getting Firefox installed on your computer is your first step to using it. This article will show you how to install Firefox on Linux. For other operating systems, see Installing Firefox on Windows and Installing Firefox on Mac.

Many Linux distributions include Firefox by default, and most have a package management system that lets you easily install Firefox. Generally, you should install from package management. Package management will:

• Ensure that you have all the required libraries
• Install Firefox in a way that works best with your distribution
• Create shortcuts to launch Firefox
• Make Firefox available to all users of your computer
• Make removing Firefox work the same as removing any other application

Package management also has some downsides:

• It may not give you the latest version of Firefox
• It may give you a version without Firefox branding

Installing from a package manager

To install Firefox using the package manager, please refer to the documentation of the Linux distribution you're using.

Installing outside of a package manager

Complete instructions for installing Firefox outside of package management may be available at your distribution's support website.

• Installing Firefox on Ubuntu

Before you install Firefox, make sure that your computer has the required libraries installed. Missing libraries will cause Firefox to be inoperable.

• If your system does not meet those requirements, you should download the latest update to Firefox 2.

The following instructions will install Firefox into your home directory, and only the current user will be able to run it.

1. Download Firefox from the Firefox download page to your home directory.
2. Open a Terminal and extract the contents of the downloaded file.

   cd ~
   tar xjf firefox-*.tar.bz2

3. Close Firefox if it's open.
4. To start Firefox, run the firefox script in the firefox folder.

   ~/firefox/firefox

Firefox should now start. You can then create an icon on your desktop to run this command.

libstdc++5 error

As noted above, you need to install the required libraries for Firefox to work. Many distributions don't include libstdc++5 by default.

"firefox not installed" message or wrong version of Firefox starts

You must start Firefox with the command

~/firefox/firefox

If you try to start Firefox with the command

firefox

it will either start the package-manager-installed version of Firefox or will tell you the program is not installed.