Set Gmail as the default email-client on your Gnome Desktop using gnome-gmail

I use Thunderbird to manage all my mail accounts on my desktop instead of using a web interface, but most of my friends don't. They use gmail and are always annoyed when clicking on a mailto link opens Evolution. I am guessing this would be the case with many of you. What if your desktop could understand that you default email-client is gmail and not a desktop based email client? Yes, this is possible with this small but very useful application, gnome-gmail.

Gnome-gmail integrates the web service gmail with your gnome-desktop. This means, you can set Gmail as you default Email client and the next time you will click a mailto link or would want to send a file as email, you will be redirected to gmail rather than Evolution or other email client.

Install gnome-gmail on Ubuntu or other Debian based systems

This package is not available as a default app in the repositories. So, you will have to download the package and install it. The developers already provide a .deb package, so it will hardly take any time. Just download the file from the project's homepage and run the following command to install it.

[shredder12]$ sudo dpkg -i package_name.deb

Install gnome-gmail on Fedora or RedHat based systems

I actually came across this application while trying out Fedora 14, aka Laughlin. Others can download the rpm package available on its homepage and install it using the following command.

[shredder12]$ su -c 'rpm -ivh package_name.rpm'

Set Gmail as default Email client for your Gnome Desktop

Go to System->Preferences->Preferred appplications and you should see gmail being showed in the list of email clients. Set is as default.

Now, try opening this mailto link: user@foo.bar. Instead of evolution, you will be redirected to gmail this time. Enjoy the new integration .