Firefox Installation Issues

I'm new to linux and I've come to the conclusion that Window's has been spoiling me with the simple 'setup.exe' installation.

In this situation the problem is Firefox 2.0b1. I checked out the readme which pointed to the release notes. I went there and followed the instructions but the problem is after I type ./firefox into the console it gives me this:

./firefox-bin: error while loading shared libraries: libstdc++.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

I've tried to do the same with Thunderbird and OpenOffice but I get the same message each time.

Can anyone help? Please keep in mind that I'm a noob and that I'll need to be walked through most of this. Thanks.

It looks like you need to install the Standard C++ Libary. It's probably available through your package manager, but to be quite honest, I'm surprised that it's not already installed.

I think I've found my package manager - something called rpmdrake - but there are quite a few that have libc++ etc. in them. Any idea which one I need specifically? Or should I install as many as I can?

It depends on your system's architecture. If you're using a PC, it's probably Intel (x86), and if you're using a Mac, it's probably PowerPC (ppc). You should install the highest-version RPM for your system architecture.

I've got it figured out now, thanks a lot for your help.

As you see it probably selected the extras that you need. You might also want to look into Mplayer plugin for Firefox and flashplayer and XPDF for whenever you need things like that. I am new here too and I am just extending some newbie advice to another newbie.