Java Thinking

To set the default browser, use update-alternatives as shown below: paul@dell1525:~$ sudo update-alternatives --config x-www-browser There are 2 alternatives which provide `x-www-browser'. Selection Alternative ----------------------------------------------- 1 /usr/bin/firefox-3.0 *+ 2 /usr/bin/seamonkey Press enter to keep the default[*], or type selection number: 1 Using '/usr/bin/firefox-3.0' to provide 'x-www-browser'. There is a good write-up of the update-alternatives system here .

I've been a little frustrated with the lack of my usual Firefox plugins due to most of them not being available for Firefox 3, so I've decided to install Firefox 2. It seems apparently easy: sudo apt-get install firefox-2 Now, I can run Firefox 2 from the command line with firefox-2 Firefox 3 still works, by running 'firefox' - so while I can use 3 for browsing, I can use 2 for developing. Note, I had to create a new profile for FireFox 2, because it didn't seem right to run it with the version 3 profiles (and the extensions had a few issues) - but this is fair enough. See Firefox Profiles for more information.

If you share a login with someone else (ie. family) Firefox profiles can be very useful. Likewise, if you are a developer and you have several different contexts or modes of operation, profiles can make life a lot easier. I use them at home with family members - you can set each person up with their own profile, so all you have to do is restart Firefox (rather than logging out out of the operating system and then back on as someone else). Firefox will prompt you - asking who you want to be right now. At work, how many times have you cleared all of your private settings while debugging, just to see if the problem is related to caching or some other previous state. Creating a profile is much easier - especially since you probably want to stay logged in to all of those websites you use every day. Just start firefox from the command line with the parameter '-profilemanager' - you'll be prompted with a dialog so you can mange your profiles. Read more about it here : http://www....