How to launch files in Linux from java applets?

Unlike Windows, Linux does not have a core facility that launches applications based on a file's MIMEtype. Such capabilities exist in various places - such as in the file managers for the desktops - but I know of no command you could reliably use in all Linux environments to launch an application from a file.

One possible solution might be to launch the file in Netscape itself, with the AppletContext.showDocument() method. Netscape would presumably "show" the document in some way that makes sense for the document's MIMEtype.