Default mailto application on Fedora 17

[Dave Close]

I wrote:
>I'm running Fedora 17 with the KDE desktop. KDE's system settings
>("control panel") claims the default mailto application is Kmail. And,
>since Gnome is still present, I see that it thinks the default mailto
>application is Evolution. I don't see anything in /etc/alternatives
>that seems relevant to a mailto handler.
>
>Firefox says, "Firefox normally uses your operating
>system's default mail program to send an e-mail message."
><http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/change-program-used-open-email-links>)
>But Firefox says the default handler is Thunderbird. Where the hell is
>Firefox finding that value? And Firefox doesn't offer either of the
>other two "defaults", Kmail or Evolution, as options (except through
>the "other program" mechanism).
>
>Can anyone explain what's going on?

Seemed like a simple question. But, as happened to me previously, it seems
I can't be sufficiently clear to get a clear answer.

Aaron Konstam wrote:
>In Gnome you change the Defaults in:
> Applications-:System Tools->System Settings-> Defaults. Something 
>similar should be in KDE,

Ed Greshko wrote:
>In firefox, go to "Edit--->Preferences" and then choose "Applications".
>There you will find the "mailto" Content type.  You can click on "Use
>Other" and then select whatever application you want.

Gentlemen, please re-read my first paragraph above. I know how to change
those values. And I know how they're set. What I want to know is why
Firefox is, apparently, ignoring its own stated policy, and how to make
it do what it says it already does, but doesn't.

Again, can anyone explain what's going on? Is there some other place
that Firefox looks to discover the "system default"?
-- 
         Dave Close, Compata, Irvine CA       +1 714 434 7359
       dave at compata.com              dhclose at alumni.caltech.edu
         "The Edsel is here to stay."  -- Henry Ford II, 1957