Comment 3 for bug 370924

It's also worth noting that the http_proxy environment variables are usually limited in the range of proxies they support. For example I've a Socks proxy, though I do have polipo configured to act as a HTTP proxy.

It should be possible to configure socks as the proxy method for every application, much like a default route is configured in the interfaces file... Understanding the major difference in where and how these settings are used, what I'm indicating is that this complexity should be hidden from the users.