[tlug] NEWBIE: My Way and NOT Their Way?

[CL <az.4tlug@example.com>]

I got the urge to retry my hand at straight Debian Etch and see whether 
I could do things with it that I hadn't been satisfied with in Kubuntu.  
One of the main reasons for dumping Debian in the first place was total 
dissatisfaction with Iceweasel and Icedove; both of which are too many 
generations behind and don't allow me to install a number of updates and 
add-ons that have become conventions for me in other OSes. 

I want to remove them completely and install the most up-to-date Firefox 
and Thunderbird versions, set up my way instead of the way the Debian 
developers did because I think my installations are more secure, search 
more efficiently, and provide more on-screen real estate.  Before anyone 
suggests Konqueror, I do not like it, nor am I comfortable with desktop 
and internet integration in one package.  I don't like the idea that a 
program that knows what's on my HDD should be out on the Internet 
talking to complete strangers.  (Whether that seems reasonable to /YOU/ 
is irrelevant -- I am the money pushing these particular buttons and 
collecting the banana pellets -- you can push your own buttons your own 
way).

I've tried uninstalling with apt-get and adept using the "completely 
remove" and "purge" functions.  I then did an apt-get install and got 
both Iceweasel and Icedove back.  So I removed them again and downloaded 
the tar.gz versions of Firefox and Thunderbird, created .deb files 
according to the Debian Reference and APT How-to docs and installed them 
... and seem to have Iceweasel and Icedove yet again. 

Is it more likely that I am not installing correctly or that I have to 
look for some other dependent packages that must be removed to allow 
Mozilla products to run uninhibited and uncorrupted?  Is there any one 
place I should search?  BTW, although I manually searched and removed 
Iceweasel / Icedove folders, I did not remove any files or folders named 
"mozilla" or "mozilla-thunderbird" when I removed the Debian versions.  
I am wondering if I should have axed them, as well.

Or, am I pissing in the wind?  I'd HATE to be stuck with these turkeys. 

--
CL