Fedora 4 Firefox strange behaviour:

[Jeff Vian]

On Sun, 2005-09-25 at 21:38 +0100, Chris Northwood wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: fedora-list-bounces at redhat.com [mailto:fedora-list-
> > bounces at redhat.com] On Behalf Of akonstam at trinity.edu
> > Sent: 25 September 2005 21:26
> > To: For users of Fedora Core releases
> > Subject: Re: Fedora 4 Firefox strange behaviour:
> > 
> > On Sun, Sep 25, 2005 at 09:55:57AM -0400, Tony Nelson wrote:
> > > At 1:17 PM +0100 9/25/05, Mirco Scara wrote:
> > > >Hello everybody,
> > > >
> > > >I tried to download rpm packages several times from several different
> > > >websites such as nrpms or adobe.com and others using Firefox 1.0.6 but
> > > >when I click on to the rpm link which should usually start the download
> > > >instead firefox attempts to open and download the file using Real
> > > >Player.
> > > >Is there any particular settings I can reset to change this behaviour?
> > >
> > > The problem is at the other end.  It is possible to remove any
> > RealPlayer
> > > stuff from your end, and never play any more RealPlayer Movies (rpm), or
> > > you can right-click on the link and choose "Save Link As".
> > > ____________________________________________________________________
> > > TonyN.:'                       <mailto:tonynelson at georgeanelson.com>
> > >       '                              <http://www.georgeanelson.com/>
> > >
> > > --
> > This method does not work with Adobe and the download of AdobeReader.
> > What you are presented with is not a link and no Save Link is displayed
> > when you right click on the Download button. It is infuriating to say
> > he least.
> > -------------------------------------------
> > Aaron Konstam
> > Computer Science
> > Trinity University
> > telephone: (210)-999-7484
> 
> As Tony correctly stated, the problem is not with your configuration
> (indeed, it is behaving properly), but with the web server sending the wrong
> MIME type. Perhaps you could copy the link and wget the RPM or something as
> a workaround?
> 

I disagree .. This is a firefox configuration issue.  Firefox is
configured by default to see the .rpm files as realplayer files.  The
remote server sends the file as a binary, and firefox sees it as binary,
but with a .rpm extension so tries to handle according to it's own
config.

I made the change once to set firefox so it sees the .rpm file as
something other than a realplayer movie that it wants to open an
application for and that took care of my problem.  Have not had a single
problem since.

I can see if someone exclusively uses the .rpm as an application that it
might be an inconvenience.  However, by simply removing the application
association from firefox it still gives you the choice to save or to
open with an application of your choice.  _Fix your end_ .

The extension being the designator of file type is one of the failings
of another OS, and there are many carry-overs related to that.

> Chris Northwood.
> 
>