1116679 - Linux: "select helper application" should find applications by ".desktop" specs

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 397700

(Firefox :: Settings UI, defect)

Description

[Que Quotion]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:36.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/36.0
Build ID: 20141019030207

Steps to reproduce:

1. Use firefox in linux
2. Download a file in firefox
3. See ridiculous suggestion for "Open in..."
4. Use Preferences -> Applications to try and fix the problem
5. No platform applications listed (bug 448685)
5. Click "Use Other..."
6. Get file browser!
7. Give up finding executables in the file system on linux ({{,/usr}{,/local}}/{,s}bin)


Actual results:

Firefox presents an inconvenient interface for selecting a proper application to open a certain filetype.

The specific application and the specific filetype are not the problem; firefox should do this a different way.

Users are expecting a reasonable selection by default for "Open in..", or short list of reasonable applications in "Preferences" -> "Applications", or at the very least a comprehensive application menu for "Use other...".

Why not use the freedesktop ".desktop" spec to find applications?

Firefox attempts to use linux's mimetypes configuration, but this configuration is subject to incompletion and inconsistency. Other userland applications, like nautilus, modify and even mistake this configuration frequently. Most desktop environments, like KDE or Gnome-Shell, make use of the ".desktop" spec for their own application menus AND filetype associations.

Note the bugs specified in this report, of which it is NOT a duplicate. This is the issue underlying several other bugs, such as bug 397700, seeking to fix a firefox's problematic handling of filetype associations on linux.

Implementing the ".desktop" specification here is the best answer.

Before anyone starts tagging duplicates: these bugs are unrelated: 98084 240590 409192


Expected results:

1. Use firefox in linux
2. Download a file in firefox
3. If ever see a ridiculous suggestion for "Open in...", continue
4. Use Preferences -> Applications to fix the problem
5. If no platform applications listed (bug 448685), continue
5. Click "Use Other..."
6. Get a comprehensive menu of installed applications (works around bug 886130)
7. Give up finding executables in the file system on linux ({{,/usr}{,/local}}/{,s}bin)

Comment 1

[:Gijs (he/him)]

This is an exact duplicate of bug 492104, which was marked as a duplicate of bug 397700. Logically, that means this is also a duplicate. Filing new bugs won't help in getting this addressed.