[plug] My first download: netscape...help?!

[Ari Finander]

Thanks for this!  I'm just taking my first real steps into linux, and
paranoid about installing/uninstalling programs as I've spent most of my
computing life working in windows 95 :-(  The Netscape 4.6 was an rpm (I'm
assuming that's an acronym for something added during installation of my
Redhat 6.0 linux) but the 4.7 was my first download.  I used the install
script after unzipping the netscape 4.7 .tar.gz  so I'm hoping it didn't
deposit things in other folders automatically?  Does anyone know if 4.7 does
this?
Now for my next question: will linux netscape 4.7 accept my windows 95
netscape 4.7 mail and bookmarks and such?

Thanks again,
Ari
ari at scientist.com

P.S. get ready for question about wine and vmware in the next few weeks from
me :-) I'm converting my wife to linux too!  :-)


This isn't true at all.  You can have as many versions of Netscape
installed simultaneously as you like, so long as you have disk space for
it and they are in separate directories.  This can be useful when
upgrading from one version to another if you're not sure that the new
version is more stable than the previous (an interesting proposition
with Netscape).

Secondly, the method you describe here for uninstalling is probably
wrong I would say, based upon when Ari wrote below.  From that
description it sounds like he used the Netscape .tar.gz file and not an
rpm.  As a result, the way to uninstall it is not to use any rpm program
but to remove the appropriate directory. eg: "rm -R
/usr/local/netscape".  If the original version of Netscape was installed
via rpm then follow Len's instructions but remember the above for when
you want to un-install the new version.  Also, at risk of being called a
"smart Alick [sic]", restarting the machine is *completely* unnecessary
in either situation.  (It's not Windows 98 he's using...)


This is also completely unnecssary.  Netscape keeps its files in the
~/.netscape directory -- but you don't even need to know this to upgrade
or change versions.  Just run the new version and it will automatically
use the previous data files.  I've never had any problem "cross-grading"
between various versions so I don't think the file format changes very
much, if at all.

To summarise the answer to Ari's question: if you want to remove the old
Netscape, just remove the directory you installed it in if you installed
the previous version by hand, otherwise uninstall the RPM if it came
with the system in that way.  As for the data files, you shouldn't have
any problems just leaving them be.

Regards,

Christian.

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