Not from anything I have seen, third-party app. or not. Your friend will learn to adapt...just like the window controls being on the top left . Maybe Leopard will have some customization in this area...but I believe that Apple will want to keep their icon arranging like it is.
You can't set it so they automatically start at the top left, but you can turn off the snap to grid option and then drag the icons to where you want them. CTRL-Click on the desktop > Show view options > uncheck the snap to grid checkbox.