I tried running the command from a shell. The 'something' is /usr/bin/browser, from what I understand, that is the command regardless of the engine. My trouble in understanding what happens next is (a) there is no output from the command, so I can't identify why .browser's setting is being ignored and (b) strace stops output suddenly, and any forked or child process isn't followed.

As I replaced my /home/user, I suspect the problem to be outside that directory (i.e. not a gconf or user specific setting). Since I reinstalled the deb's for Microb, I'm quite certain the required files exist. So, outside of these two locations, where else could I look for problems?