As in windows, a default mail client can be registered with the OS, does something similar exist in Linux?

The default behavior for "mailto:" links in Linux seems to be browser-specific.

I am writing a software, in which I want to have the functionality that the user can send the currently open file by email to another person. But, since there's no default mail client, will I have to support only a pre-decided mail clients? In that case, can someone please suggest which ones should be supported, i.e. which are the most common ones?

Thanks.

- Ashu

i'm not much of a programmer, but isn't the mailto: behavior in windows also brower-specific? (Tools>Internet Options>Programs)

Why not have part of your progam set-up have the user where his email client is located?

True, but the problem in Linux seems to be the fact that different email clients have different command line options to specify the subject, message and attachment (unlike in Windows, where mail clients understand the standard MAPI commands). So, if a user specifies an arbitrary mail client as his favourite one, we would not know what the exact command line options are (if there are any) to specify the subject, etc...