Bug 189465

Version:            (using KDE 4.2.2)
OS:                Linux
Installed from:    Unspecified Linux

I'm using Arch Linux and it's KDEmod distribution of KDE 4.2.2. I've been trying to get KDE apps recognized by other non-KDE apps (Firefox, Thunderbird, Opera etc.) as appropriate MIME type file openers.

I've used numerous "integration" tips/tweaks and hacks, including the xdg-open one. The problem was, I never had the ability to choose which app to use that way, it always chose the default one. 

I always wondered why, for example xpdf or Openoffice, gets listed and works "out-of-the-box" and KDE apps don't. Then, I stumbled upon the /usr/share/applications directory which stores the .desktop files of all applications which get recognize. KDE apps are also there, but in a subfolder kde4 (/usr/share/applications/kde4). 

This made me think and I've I tried the following trick:
cd /usr/share/applications
for i in kde4/*; do ln -s $i .; done
update-desktop-database -v .
update-mime-database /usr/share/mime

After that, marvelously all other apps (tested Firefox, Thunderbird and Opera) started listing Okular as the default PDF handler, Ark as the default zip handler etc. Everything worked out of the box! No tweaks, no xdg-open hacks, and I could finally choose which application to open my files with. Finally KDE applications started being recognized on par with Gnome apps by Firefox and Thunderbird!

It seems that KDE is the only set of applications which uses a subdirectory in /usr/share/applications, and it seems that it's the main source of problems for other apps following Freedesktop.org's specification. All non-DE apps (xpdf, VirtualBox etc) put their .desktop files there. Heck, Gnome also puts it's applications' desktop files there and their apps get picked up without problems.

I wondered why KDE uses the kde4/ subdirectory. I asked my packagers' about it (http://www.kdemod.ath.cx/bbs/viewtopic.php?id=698), thinking that it was a packaging thing, but they said it came like that from upstream. 

Is there any reason why KDE uses the subdirectory for their .desktop files? Would it be a problem for KDE apps to put their .desktop apps straight into /usr/share/applications? I ask and I'm really interested in the topic, because _SO_ much interoperability can be gained by such a simple modification.

Cheers,
Michal