GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 169670
The gnome-default-applications-properties caplet should set default program for file types
Last modified: 2011-09-09 10:10:15 UTC
Version details: 2.10.0 Distribution/Version: Ubuntu hoary The Preferred Applications (gnome-default-applications-properties) capplet should set the default opener fot html and xhtml files when setting the default web browser. The current behavior doesn't set this so when an "activate_uri" gets called (back) for an html file on the hard disk i.e. "file:///usr/share/blah/foo.html" it gets opened with a different program. As a side note which proably needs its own bug, bugzilla needs a 2.10.x entry under this component.
*** Bug 308803 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Confirming that this bug is still there with GNOME 2.13.90 Nautilus does not use x-www-browser to open local files. Is there any prospect of this being fixed?
Don't forget application/xhtml+xml in addition to text/html if the behaviour of the "Default browser" setting is changed.
*** Bug 331106 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
*** Bug 359986 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
The same problem can be observed when double-clicking .desktop files with URL type. Firefox is started regardless of the preferred browser setting.
This problem is still present in GNOME 2.20.1 (tested on Ubuntu Gutsy).
Not sure about this bug. I can think of some use cases where you wouldn't want .html or .xhtml files to be associated with the web browser (if you are a web developer for example). I think it's understandable that "default web browser" and "application to open .html files" are two separate options.
Thomas, several people reported bugs about that so I don't think it's that clear to users how it's working and why
In my opinion, the fact that users report bugs about this is more a problem of how associating mime types with apps works nowadays, though (which is pretty much undiscoverable).
I agree with Jens, I think mime-type associations are difficult to configure and it is this problem we should be addressing.
is there any need to have something else than a mimetype association though? when a user opens an image over http he should get the image viewer, when he opens a webpage it should get the associated application, the url against mimetype difference doesn't make sense to users
I'm running into the .desktop URL shortcuts problem. That's definitely a case of an URL not opening in the browser, so it's not strictly a duplicate of this (although it is mentioned here). That should be uncontroversial to fix. Regarding the .html vs. browser issue... I think it's perfectly reasonable to allow people to set that to open a text editor or whatever. That works now, regardless of how discoverable it is, right? If so, the discoverability or ease-of-use of the MIME type setting is a separate issue. The solution here is NOT that the gnome-default-applications-properties caplet should set a MIME handler. Instead, the default .html handler should be gnome-www-browser. In this way, .html files would open by default in your preferred browser. If you changed your preferred browser later, .html files would open in that preferred browser. It would need no special-case logic in the caplet and wouldn't prevent people from changing the default action to be open in gedit, for example.
i was about to fill a similar report. concerning comment #8 from Thomas Wood i think that bug should be fix regarding average user for instance web developer is not average user clicking on an html file should launch the prefered application advanced user always has the possibilty to choose another application from the contextual menu
Still a problem in gnome 2.26.3 I'm not sure what's so controversial that this takes 4+ years to resolve For the user it's as simple as the following... Steps to reproduce: 1. Run `gnome-default-applications-properties` and set Epiphany as default browser 2. Browse to google.com in Epiphany 3. Drag the address bar link to the desktop to create a shortcut 4. Double click the shortcut on your desktop Expected Result: Link to open in Epiphany Actual Result: Link opens in Firefox
*** Bug 536818 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
It's worth noting that this shows up in a variety of contexts where programs are using mime to determine what browser to open. I've noticed it on springlobby, Hulu Desktop, and even Gnome's own Pidgin. None of these are using it in a context where having anything other than the web browser open it makes sense.
(In reply to comment #17) ... > and even Gnome's own Pidgin ... Just to properly emphasize this: Pidgin is not part of GNOME. GNOME uses Empathy as the default messenger, and the pidgin developers don't want their product to be included in GNOME.
Created separate bug for the uncontroversial .desktop issue: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=621093 Wrong browser is launched when double clicking a link desktop entry (.desktop) file
The "Preferred Applications" capplet is now gone in GNOME 3, and most of its code was rewritten. If you experience problems using the "System Info" panel in GNOME 3's system settings, please file a new bug.