@eric.araujo, @giampaolo.rodola,
(http://bugs.python.org/issue3177#msg140275)
I'm not sure I understand why this was moved to shutil.open. It seems appropriate to try to accomplish what os.startfile() does in a cross-platform way. Don't many of the other os.* calls do this--check os.name and then "do the right thing". This is the first os.* call I've found that doesn't work on linux (though I'm sure there are many others). Is the reason because the name 'startfile' is a Windows creation and sounds Windowsy? If so, shouldn't os.startfile() be renamed to something generic like os.launch() or .launchfile()? But then you'd have reverse-compatibility issues.
Why not just enhance os.startfile() so it doesn't barf if you try to use it on posix/mac? I'll try to contribute to the shutil.open() effort too.