[Bug 1155817] [NEW] No user-friendly way of changing the default applications in Ubuntu desktop

[Dražen Lučanin]

Public bug reported:

There is no quick and easy way to change default applications that open
certain kinds of files (video, text, audio). There seems to be a lot of
demand for this, judging by these AskUbuntu questions (and this is only
for video files! More people are having trouble doing this for text
editors, music players etc.):

http://askubuntu.com/questions/119244/cant-change-global-default-video-player-to-vlc
http://askubuntu.com/questions/91701/how-to-set-vlc-as-default-video-player

Currently e.g. if I want to switch from Totem to VLC for video playing,
I either have to open properties and set VLC as the default manuall for
*every* video file extension I encounter (.avi, .mp4, .mkv to name only
a few - this is even worse for text files). The "default applications"
options in the Control Center don't seem to do anything. The only
feasible solution seems to be  to open the administrative file
/usr/share/applications/defaults.list and search for totem.desktop and
replace all occurences with vlc.desktop - this is hackish to say the
least, while also error-prone, and against the multi-user philosophy
(since it applies the changes for all users).

Expected behaviour - since there are already two GUI places to specify
default applications for certain file types at least one of them should
work properly. Either the file properties should have two options - make
default for this extension and make default for all files of this kind
(e.g. video, audio, text etc.) or the default applications in the
Control Center should work.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10
Package: ubuntu-desktop 1.287
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-25.39-generic 3.5.7.4
Uname: Linux 3.5.0-25-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.6.1-0ubuntu10
Architecture: amd64
Date: Fri Mar 15 22:59:31 2013
InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-10-19 (147 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Release amd64 (20121017.5)
MarkForUpload: True
SourcePackage: ubuntu-meta
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

** Affects: ubuntu-meta (Ubuntu)
     Importance: Undecided
         Status: New


** Tags: amd64 apport-bug quantal third-party-packages

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Foundations Bugs, which is subscribed to ubuntu-meta in Ubuntu.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1155817

Title:
  No user-friendly way of changing the default applications in Ubuntu
  desktop

Status in “ubuntu-meta” package in Ubuntu:
  New

Bug description:
  There is no quick and easy way to change default applications that
  open certain kinds of files (video, text, audio). There seems to be a
  lot of demand for this, judging by these AskUbuntu questions (and this
  is only for video files! More people are having trouble doing this for
  text editors, music players etc.):

  http://askubuntu.com/questions/119244/cant-change-global-default-video-player-to-vlc
  http://askubuntu.com/questions/91701/how-to-set-vlc-as-default-video-player

  Currently e.g. if I want to switch from Totem to VLC for video
  playing, I either have to open properties and set VLC as the default
  manuall for *every* video file extension I encounter (.avi, .mp4, .mkv
  to name only a few - this is even worse for text files). The "default
  applications" options in the Control Center don't seem to do anything.
  The only feasible solution seems to be  to open the administrative
  file /usr/share/applications/defaults.list and search for
  totem.desktop and replace all occurences with vlc.desktop - this is
  hackish to say the least, while also error-prone, and against the
  multi-user philosophy (since it applies the changes for all users).

  Expected behaviour - since there are already two GUI places to specify
  default applications for certain file types at least one of them
  should work properly. Either the file properties should have two
  options - make default for this extension and make default for all
  files of this kind (e.g. video, audio, text etc.) or the default
  applications in the Control Center should work.

  ProblemType: Bug
  DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10
  Package: ubuntu-desktop 1.287
  ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-25.39-generic 3.5.7.4
  Uname: Linux 3.5.0-25-generic x86_64
  ApportVersion: 2.6.1-0ubuntu10
  Architecture: amd64
  Date: Fri Mar 15 22:59:31 2013
  InstallationDate: Installed on 2012-10-19 (147 days ago)
  InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Release amd64 (20121017.5)
  MarkForUpload: True
  SourcePackage: ubuntu-meta
  UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)

To manage notifications about this bug go to:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ubuntu-meta/+bug/1155817/+subscriptions