GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 640835
'Open with other Application' should not remember setting by default
Last modified: 2017-05-08 20:00:28 UTC
Originally reported at https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gtk+2.0/+bug/702338 in Nautilus, when choosing 'Open with Other Application' in the right-click menu, the tick-box "Remember this application for '<type>' files" is ticked by default. This is unwanted behaviour, as often a user will just try the application out, not set it by default. At the very least, the tick-box should not be set for folders, as it is now, as folders will suddenly not be opened in Nautilus anymore in many menus (such as 'Home' in the gnome places menu). You might want to open folders with a different application sometimes, but the default should be with the filebrowser, and it should not be the default to change this behaviour when opening with a different program the first time.
I think it makes sense to prevent the 'Open with other application' dialogue from changing the default application since the way the items are grouped in the right-click menu leads the user to believe that there won't be such a change. When opening a right-click menu for a file or folder, the default application is displayed as the first option. There is then a separator, followed by a few alternative applications and the option to choose another one, before another separator is encountered. For example, right clicking on a PDF file on my desktop gives me the option of opening it with 'Document Viewer' as the default application, then sandwiched between two separators are the options 'Open with Inkscape', 'Open with PDF Mod' and 'Open with another application'. The grouping of these three options implies that the behaviour observed by the user will be identical, when in fact the last option, 'Open with another application', changes the default application with which the file is opened. I think a solution so this would be to insert a menu option, between 'Open with Document Viewer' and the separator, to change the default application. This can easily be achieved by changing the name of the 'Open with other application' to 'Change default application', or a variation on a theme, and moving it to this location. Another menu item can then be inserted in it's place that will allow the user to 'Open with other application' without changing the default program.
This checkbox no longer seems to exist in GTK3 (Nautilus 3.2.0), and the the default is now easy to change in nautilus by right clicking and going to the properties of a file. This bug is therefore now resolved
Just to be clear the checkbox is gone and when open with other application does not set the application to default it just adds it to the open with list of applications. This bug is therefore now resolved
For me, this bug now exists in 3.24. There is NO checkbox, and the default is changed.