cant update firefox or install other programs

If you want to install Firefox you can simply go to:

System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager

From there go to "Find" and search for Firefox

This will mark it for installation.

Double click on it and then click "Apply" in the upper menu. This will install it.

Synaptic is your gateway to a lot of programs (including Firefox, Thunderbird...and many others).

Firefox should have came installed on Ubuntu. Do you not see it under Applications > Internet > Firefox Web Browser?

Also, you can install many applications directly from people's websites (for example, Firefox) from http://www.mozilla.org/ and go to Firefox, Download it and then double click the file. It will open and ask you to install it. The file is file type ".deb." This is Ubuntu's version of ".exe" and will install it for you.

it came installed, but it verson 1.5. i went to mozilla's website, and when i download the file it comes as a tar.bz2, i extract that to a folder without an deb in it

What version of Ubuntu are you running?

6.06.1 LTS, do i need to update it, where can i do it?

You can get the Firefox 3.0 .deb directly from here:

http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/main/f/firefox-3.0/firefox-3.0_3.0.8+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.2_i386.deb

One thing you should note, though, is that you sound like you are running a very dated version of Ubuntu. It might be in your best interest to upgrade.

where can i get an upgrade?

Thanks Craig Huffstetler, that solved my question.