Dock help please

Hi there. I am very new to mac but loving it.
I have downloaded Firefox to my iBook G4. I have MAc OS 10.3.9
I have downloaded the compatible Firefox which is 2.0.0.20. No problems so far. It works fine. I have dragged it into the Applications menu and then dragged it from there into the Dock. All fine. Until I shut my iBook down. When I come to restart it Firefox won't open fromt he dock. The Firefox icon is there but no arrow underneath it and it just won't open. I also had this with MSn the other night.

Also whilst I'm here- my husband wants me to upgrade my OS. Could you tell me the best place to get an upgrade disk. My husband took this G4 in as part exchange on something else and we don't have any disks with it. It's running 10.3.9. We've upgraded the memory on it.

TIA

Rather than dragging the Firefox icon to the dock try opening it from the Applications folder and then moving the icon while it is on the dock. The act of moving it makes the computer understand that you want to keep it there and it usually works fine. To be extra sure, once Firefox is open you can right-click on the icon and choose 'Keep in Dock'.

You local Apple retail store or the online Apple Retail store will be able to sell you an upgrade disk. You may be able to get it cheaper from ebay etc but you will need to be careful that you are buying a licensed copy.

Thanks IDSAMDG. I've tried this and even though the Iconm is in the doc - the programme won't start from it when I click on it

maybe you didn't quit the app b4 ? by clicking the red button in the top left, you only closed the one window of that app, to quit you need to press cmd+q

so if this is the case, just press cmd+n and you will get a new window of that app (this shortcut probably doesn't work everywhere though, there will be similar in every app) or just quit the program and run it again

you can tell easily an app is running if it has a blue circle below it's icon in the dock (it will also be visible in Activity Monitor of course, or if you pres cmd+tab you will cycle through running apps, again cycle through apps that are on, not necessarily have an open window)

I hope it's not too confusing