So this is not a question about how to do this. I know how to do this. I also know that (at least under GNOME) it is neither easy nor intuitive. It involves manually editing several different text files to define MIME types and associating an application with that MIME type. My question is: is there an easy to use GUI tool to do this. I don’t think there is. Associating a file type to open with a specific app is easy, trivial even, to do on MacOS or Windows. Why is this seemingly simple task so hard to do in GNOME?

  • rustydomino@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
    31·
    1 month ago

    Nope. This doesn’t work when you have binaries that are not recognized by GNOME. You need to make a .desktop file for your binary first that define MIME types for that app. If it is a MIME type that is not recognized by the freedesktop.org database, you also have to create an XML file that defines your specific file type based on file extension or other characteristics. Then, you need to use Nautilus to set the default app. It’s a pain in the ass if it’s not a standard app from the Ubuntu App Store and a standard MIME type.