Let Firefox 2 and 3 co-exist in your Linux box

It's quite simple actually. I had FF3 installed to begin with.

1. Backup your existing Firefox 3 profile. You do this by typing 'firefox -P' in the command line and saving the 'default' profile under a different name. I gave the name 'tyrell-ff3'
   
2. Install Firefox 2 and Firefox 2 Gnome support. I used Synaptic.
   
3. Launch Firefox 2 with 'firefox-2 -P' and create a new profile, I named it 'tyrell-ff2'. Note that your previous Firefox 3 profile is listed there as well.
4. Now you can launch each version of Firefox with the associated profiles.

Just to make sure I don't mix those two profiles and mess them up. I changed my Firefox 2 and 3 shortcuts to use the commands 'firefox-2 -P tyrell-ff2' and 'firefox -P tyrell-ff3' respectively. So instead of asking me to chose a profile, they will use the relevant profile automatically.

I also installed Firebug and Web Developer Toolbar extensions using Synaptic. So both are available in Firefox 2 and 3 by default. Since my reasons for co-existence are mainly development oriented, this is proving to be an ideal solution.

Hope this helps others too ...