Bug#282281: kde: KDE applications take over Gnome file types

Sun, 21 Nov 2004 04:10:33 +0100

>>It seems to me there is some over-eager "merging" of the two
>>desktops going on.  Either I want to run KDE or Gnome; running both
>>is confusing.
> 
> 
>   well, sometimes you want to use a non-gnome application. for example,
>   *cough* k3b. (I hear there are some amarok gnome fans too ;-)

Yes, you sometimes want to, and you can.  For example, I use xpdf 
instead of the Gnome PDF viewer.  You just have to select the 
application explicitly.

>   note that the reverse is not true, that is, having gnome installed
>   does not confuse kde (afaict). why?, because kde gives *by default*
>   priority to kde applications, so that the result is consistent. the
>   defaults can be overriden if the user wishes so, of course.

Well, how does KDE know what applications to give priority to?  Is that 
indicated in the list?  This seems like a level of complexity that may 
be acceptable to the developers of KDE, but it strikes me as something 
that isn't good for Gnome.

>   so, although the "solution" to your problem is not installing kde,
>   please just note that KDE is not stepping over Gnome, just following
>   the accepted standard.

Well, the notion of a single global list that lists all applications 
willing to handle a MIME type seems like a bad idea to me.  A Gnome user 
should just not be offered a KDE application as a viable choice in any 
standard menu because KDE applications just don't run well enough under 
Gnome yet.  But that's just my opinion...

Cheers,
Thomas.