id	summary	reporter	owner	description	type	status	priority	milestone	component	version	resolution	keywords	cc	blockedby	blocking	notify_on_close	platform	project
1188	ChimeraX should ask before registering itself as default application for opening files	Tristan Croll	Greg Couch	"It's something of an annoyance that ChimeraX automatically registers itself as *the* default viewer for a remarkably wide range of file types. On my Linux machine:

{{{
cat ~/.local/share/applications/defaults.list

[Default Applications]
application/octet-stream=UCSF-ChimeraX-0.1.desktop
application/x-chimerax-code=UCSF-ChimeraX-unknown.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.1.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.5.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.6.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.7.desktop
application/x-chimerax-session=UCSF-ChimeraX-unknown.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.1.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.5.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.6.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.7.desktop
application/x-python-code=UCSF-ChimeraX-unknown.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.1.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.5.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.6.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.7.desktop
application/xhtml+xml=UCSF-ChimeraX-0.5.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.6.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.7.desktop
chemical/x-mmcif=UCSF-ChimeraX-unknown.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.1.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.5.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.6.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.7.desktop
chemical/x-pdb=UCSF-ChimeraX-unknown.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.1.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.5.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.6.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.7.desktop
chemical/x-spdbv=UCSF-ChimeraX-unknown.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.1.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.5.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.6.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.7.desktop
model/x3d+xml=UCSF-ChimeraX-unknown.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.1.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.5.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.6.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.7.desktop
text/html=UCSF-ChimeraX-0.1.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.5.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.6.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.7.desktop
text/x-chimerax=UCSF-ChimeraX-unknown.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.1.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.5.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.6.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.7.desktop
text/x-python=UCSF-ChimeraX-unknown.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.1.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.5.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.6.desktop;UCSF-ChimeraX-0.7.desktop
}}}

Registering itself as the default viewer for application-specific files (PDB, mmCIF etc.) is one thing, but in Linux it also becomes *the* default for opening HTML and Python files. That will undoubtedly lead to complaints, and it also leads to weirdness: using Python's `webbrowser` library to open an HTML file (ISOLDE's help) from within ChimeraX launches a brand new ChimeraX instance which then dutifully opens it in the PyQt HTML browser.
"	defect	closed	moderate		Platform		nonchimerax						all	ChimeraX