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Actually, "desktop" just provides a way of saying "I'm on KDE 
not GNOME!" or something similar; the decisions then 
made by the function aren't themselves configurable, but 
then a developer would arguably be better off using 
os.system at that point. 
 
The module is really supposed to encapsulate knowledge 
about how to start programs in various desktop 
environments, along with a means to detect those 
environments in the first place. If you as a programmer 
disagree with the detection, override it; if you as a 
programmer know better, don't use the function... but do 
send a patch! 
 
As for user overrides, something like OPENER might be 
needed to get around the decisions taken in the module, 
although something "lighter" like DESKTOP might also be 
useful to override just the detection. It astounds me that 
such simple things haven't been agreed on by the 
freedesktop people, or at least not in any obvious way.