Major annoyance here: if you're using Firefox on Windows, and you click on an email link, then your default email program opens with the email address already filled in for you. On Linux, you can't count on that. Some people running GNOME report success by setting the GNOME default mailer, but that doesn't work for everyone, especially - obviously - those who don't run GNOME. In my case, clicking on the mailto link results in … nothing.

I found a solution here (I was pointed there by this comment at NewsForge - thanks, Anonymous Reader!): http://www-es.fernuni-hagen.de/~jfh00/blog/040916.html. It's in German, but don't freak, because the key line is in good ol' American. Here's what you do.

First, close Firefox. It shouldn't be running when we're editing these files.

Look for your Firefox profile folder. It's probably at /home/[user]/.mozilla/firefox/default, but it may be elsewhere. If you're not sure where it is, then follow this link, which leads to the excellent MozillaZine Knowledge Base and should tell you what you need to know.

In your profile folder, you may see a file named user.js. If you do, great - we're going to be editing that file. If you don't, then create a file named user.js using your favorite text editor.

Open user.js and enter the following line:

user_pref("network.protocol-handler.app.mailto","/usr/bin/thunderbird");

This is key: if you don't want to use Thunderbird as the mail program that opens when you click on a mailto link, or if you've installed Tbird in a non-standard location, you need to change /usr/bin/thunderbird to a different path. In my case, I used /usr/bin/kmail. (If you use pine and want a brilliant solution to this problem, read this message at NewsForge from someone who got pine to work - use user.js instead of prefs.js, however).

Save user.js, restart Firefox, and find a web page with an email link on it. Click on the link, and an email ready to compose, with the email address already filled in, should open using your preferred email program. Cool.

Now, if someone could just help me get File > Send Link to work, since, sadly, the above method doesn't fix that. Choosing File > Send Link opens up an email, but it's entirely blank, with no link anywhere to be seen. :(

PS - The German page referenced above also has instructions for setting up Tbird so that if you click on http, https, or ftp links in an email, Firefox opens. I don't use Tbird, but those of you who do might want to check it out. Just edit user.js!