DMGs and disc images...

Hi all
Officially made the switch from PC this week and am now the proud owner of a hot new iMac.
I'm loving it so far and finding the transition very smooth, however I can't get my head around DMG files and disc images.
For example, I've downloaded Firefox and Thunderbird. They now sit on my dock and work well, however I have the DMGs and a disc image file sitting on my desktop and I don't know what to do with them.
At first I assumed that a DMG was just like the zip and rar files I was so used to on the PC. I would just unpack them, install them to the destination of my choice, then delete the archive file. DMGs don't seem to be quite the same thing though.
Also, what are the disc image files? I would like my desktop to be as unclutered as possible, however if I try and move these into my home folder, they only come over as shortcuts.
If anyone could guide me through the process I would greatly appreciate it.
Cheers,
Heath.

Hi
There are 2 ways of installing:
1 With apps like Firefox & Thunderbird, you download the DMG
Double-clicking it should open a window with a Firefox icon followed by an arrow &, I think, a folder icon. To install firefox you open a finder window, navigate to Applications then drag & drop the Firefox icon to the Applications window. This installs the application. You can then drag the white disk icon on the desktop to the trash (to eject it).
If you have dragged it straight to the dock then you are running the program from the disk image (you have not actually installed it).
2 Application will also come in form of .pkg file, double-click to run.
Steve

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