<p dir="auto">Pass a URL to <code class="notranslate">shell.openExternal()</code> freezes the application in GNU/Linux, and the URL is not opened at all.</p>
<p dir="auto"><a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/2192773/14295014/d120bf20-fb41-11e5-867b-bf37a1264e6e.png"><img src="https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/2192773/14295014/d120bf20-fb41-11e5-867b-bf37a1264e6e.png" alt="screenshot from 2016-04-05 15 16 06" style="max-width: 100%;"></a></p>
<p dir="auto">See the following Gist: <a href="https://gist.github.com/jviotti/84a69e6d11097187059b6b584ff5e86f">https://gist.github.com/jviotti/84a69e6d11097187059b6b584ff5e86f</a></p>
<p dir="auto">Instructions:</p>
<div class="highlight highlight-source-shell notranslate position-relative overflow-auto" dir="auto" data-snippet-clipboard-copy-content="cd path/to/gist
npm install
sudo npm start"><pre class="notranslate"><span class="pl-c1">cd</span> path/to/gist
npm install
sudo npm start</pre></div>
<p dir="auto">No error is thrown, the app just hangs forever.</p>
<hr>
<ul dir="auto">
<li>Electron version: 0.37.4</li>
<li>Operating system: Ubuntu 14.04 x64</li>
</ul>
<ul dir="auto">
<li>Electron version: 0.34.5 in Atom</li>
<li>Electron version: [unknown] in the <a href="https://slack.com/downloads" rel="nofollow">v2.0.1 version of Slack</a></li>
<li>Operating system: Ubuntu 15.10</li>
</ul>
<p dir="auto">Under Linux <code class="notranslate">shell.openExternal</code> uses <code class="notranslate">xdg-open</code>. If your default browser is Firefox and it's already open then <code class="notranslate">xdg-open</code> only runs long enough to open the new tab then exits. But if you didn't have Firefox open <code class="notranslate">xdg-open</code> lives for the life of Firefox and the electron app hangs until you close the browser.</p>
<p dir="auto">I don't know if the same thing happens with Chrome.</p>