New `MimeType` fields in .desktop

[Thayne]

I'd like to point out that on Ubuntu 20.04 there are no system
mimeapps.list files provided (either for DE or globally). I believe
the same is true of archlinux.   Which means that unless the user has
specifically changed the default application for a mime type, if
multiple applications handle a mime type, which one is chosen is,
according to the spec, random. That is clearly not a very good user
experience.  So why aren't mimeapps.list files provided? I don't know
for sure, but as Eli Schwarz said it is rather problematic for a DE or
distribution to decide on what applications should go there for every
possible MIME type, not to mention the problem of the default
application not being installed. It also puts the burden of
maintaining that list on package maintainers rather than distributing
it among applications developers.  An application could potentially
add itself to a mimeapps.list  file, but that also has problems. Which
mimeapps.list files  does it add to? All of them? Just the
distribution-provided non-desktop-specific, just the desktop-specific?
And where does it add it? the end, the beginning? It also needs to be
smart enough to handle the cases of the file not existing, or if it
has additional sections besides [Default Applications].

I'm not sure the original proposal is the best solution, but there is
clearly a problem here.

Thayne McCombs

On Wed, Feb 17, 2021 at 7:17 PM Eli Schwartz <eschwartz at archlinux.org> wrote:
>
> On 2/17/21 5:52 PM, Bastien Nocera wrote:
> > The order for mime-types with no defaults has nothing to do with a
> > "shared database", it's implementation specific, as it's not codified
> > in the mime specs. GLib probably behaves differently than Qt does,
> > which means that the file managers using either of those are likely to
> > behave differently.
>
> Qt's native support for opening files in accordance with XDG is to
> invoke /usr/bin/xdg-open.
>
> --
> Eli Schwartz
> Arch Linux Bug Wrangler and Trusted User
>
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