[CALUG] Podcast *player* plug-in for Firefox 1.5?

[Browne at t-online.de]

Hi CALUG,
    There are actually several questions in here.  Start with a podcast
like this:

http://www.podcast.net/show/17589

I can *subscribe* to that podcast, no problem (I use "BashPodder",
simple but effective.)  But you'll notice there is a little green icon
labeled "play" (sort of like a preview of the podcast.)  If you mouse
over it, you see "javascript:player('http://www.podcast.net/play/17589/7')"
If you click on it, it says I need a plugin (if I pursue that, I believe the
plugin it says I need is Quicktime.)

My question is - how and why is this different than ordinary audio,
where you can associate a plugin or extermal application with a mime
type or a file suffix?  When I get these podcasts (via the BashPodder
method), they are simple MP3 files.  Why do they use this 
"javascript:player"
approach, and can't I just force it to simply play the MP3 the way it 
normally
does (launching RealPlayer)?  AFAIK, Quicktime is not available for
Linux, anyway I don't see why that association is made for me, and how
I can break it.

TIA - Ed