Ubuntu – How to stop Firefox opening xml files and get gedit to open them instead

Holy cow! This issue drove me CRAZY all evening. I finally figured it out. I realize the original question was long ago, but I want this answer on the internet, so here goes:

Instead of adding an entry for XML, I had to update the extensions list for text/plain. Here is what the text/plain entry now looks like in my mimeTypes.rdf file. The file is located in the firefox profile folder, see firefox troubleshooting page (type about:support into the navigation bar) and under "Profile Folder" click on "Show Folder" then edit the mimeTypes.rdf file with notepad++.

  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:text/plain"
                   NC:description="Text Document"
                   NC:value="text/plain"
                   NC:editable="true">
    <NC:fileExtensions>xml</NC:fileExtensions>
    <NC:fileExtensions>txt</NC:fileExtensions>
    <NC:handlerProp RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:handler:text/plain"/>
  </RDF:Description>

  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:handler:text/plain"
                   NC:alwaysAsk="false"
                   NC:saveToDisk="false"
                   NC:useSystemDefault="false"
                   NC:handleInternal="false">
    <NC:externalApplication RDF:resource="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:text/plain"/>
  </RDF:Description>

  <RDF:Description RDF:about="urn:mimetype:externalApplication:text/plain"
                   NC:path="C:\Program Files\Notepad++\notepad++.exe"
                   NC:prettyName="notepad++.exe" />

Vim will be able to handle 20mb without breaking a sweat. It should be more than enough to do your record deletions. Run vimtutor if you need a good walkthrough on how to use it (lesson 2.1 covers the deletion commands)