Thunderbird can not be set as default mail reader in Gnome (in Preferred Applications)

[Craig Huffstetler]

Thunderbird can be set as the "Mail Reader" in Preferred Applications in Gnome; however, Gnome and Nautilus seem to ignore this setting and still use Evolution as the default mail client. The symbolic link is broken, I believe. If you the option "Custom" and point it to:

/usr/lib/thunderbird/thunderbird "%s" it works fine.

I believe this should be fixed as it is a usability issue and a deterent for many users. If "Thunderbird" is an option in the Mail Reader options as a preferred application -- then it should work. It should not still be defaulting back to Evolution, it should at least give the user an error.

Also, obviously:
- "Send To" throughout Nautilus;
- Links on Firefox web pages (mailto:);
- "Send As Attachment" links in Nautilus.

Are all broken until this is fixed because it falls back on Evolution and not the client of choice for the user.

[Michael C. Thorogood (mcthorogood)]

When I first installed Jaunty, I tried to change the default mail client in FF by adding the "network.protocol-handler.app.mailto" and setting its value to "/usr/bin/thunderbird" in about:config.

That didn't work, but changing the default mail client in System|Preferences|`Preferred Applications` worked.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thanks for the bug report. This particular bug has already been reported, but feel free to report any other bugs you find.