OK I'm new to linux, and so there's a learning curve. But, although I worked for years with unix ksh production scripts and user support, at the moment I need to take another break.
I first installed 14.04 64-bit last week and just yesterday got past numerous stop/startovers to a system that seems(!) to work OK with one additional app installed. So now I'm encouraged. Breakthrough. Learned some things. Surely a popular package like TB won't be a problem. Not so, but far otherwise....
This page from Mozilla doesn't do much after a download. It points to another page for installing onto 10.10, but that page assumes that a version of TB is already installed.
For using a package manager, the page above simply refers you to the documentation of the Linux distribution you're using. I used a PPA for java yesterday for my other app. Is that the same thing? Where is doc that explains them and how to use them on 14.04? Web search hits return all kinds of commentary, but there are 47 ways to do everything (a good thing, but...), not all of the doc is complete (assumes other knowledge), and some refers to older versions (10, 12, etc.). It makes sense to me that this function would work the same across versions, but what I assume/makes sense to me isn't always right.
For installing outside a package manager, it gives a link to a list of the libraries needed -- but no indication how to get them. Apparently I need those, because I downloaded TB per those instructions, ran ~/thunderbird/thunderbird, and nothing happened. I don't see an icon for it, either, which it seems is done by a package manager and which might be obtainable by other means -- but at this point I just want to get it working at all. The directory and files are there, but...nothing. Thought TB might be popular enough to be part of ubuntu. I'm not interested in any of the numerous apps in Launchpad, but I didn't see it there or in the Software Center.
Then this morning, looking for more info with yet more search strings, I see a comment that TB is "stock in 14.04" (not just "Lucid Lynx"?) and to wait a few days for a "push" from Canonical. That sounds promising, but what does that mean in practice? Is it available somewhere in the 14.04 (64-bit) that I just installed?
What do I need to do next? I only have the native 14.04 (64-bit) installed plus one other app. Not interested in Launchpad, if that matters.
