Xsnow "protestware" in Debian • Hacker News Board

Re: Xsnow "protestware" in Debian

#21

Post by JdeBP » Tue, Jun 30, 2026, 6:02 PM UTC

neilv wrote: post #5

I'm very sympathetic to Ukraine and the desire to demonstrate or speak out, but I don't see how this instance is very effective, and doing it has a significant cost to the integrity of Debian, as this argument says: > Russ Allbery agreed that the DFSG was not relevant; he also warned that citing the Social Contract and DFSG ""turns the conversation into rules lawyering without addressing the actual issue"". However,…

It is interesting to read M. Allbery's comment side by side with the discussion here on Hacker News about a CLAUDE.EXE program with hidden behaviour that subtly changes the way that it outputs an information banner based upon timezones, hostnames, and domain names.

* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48734373

Further LWN commentary (as observed at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48736518) is that the result would not be solely drama but potentially some fairly nasty real world consequences for some people.

Re: Xsnow "protestware" in Debian

#22

Post by weare138 » Tue, Jun 30, 2026, 6:03 PM UTC

Has anyone confirmed who this 'Alexander Ivanov' person is or even if this is a real person and not some AI bot? I searched for the email address used and it only appears recently in these handful of posts about xsnow.

Re: Xsnow "protestware" in Debian

#23

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jun 30, 2026, 6:05 PM UTC

4bpp wrote: post #7

Svoka wrote: post #2

How is seeing more Ukrainian flags a discrimination? Discrimination implies something harmful. Like invading neighbor country and perpetrating genocide. This complaint says more about Ivanov than anything else.

The imputed discriminatory part is that the software only shows the additional flags to users with Russian locale, not that it shows the flags at all.

[deleted]

Re: Xsnow "protestware" in Debian

#24

Post by weare138 » Tue, Jun 30, 2026, 6:06 PM UTC

_0xdd wrote: post #16

One of the comments that struck me on the lwn.net site is the (albeit small) possibility that someone in Russia could be running the software and unintentionally land themselves in hot water if someone discovers these images on their computer. I'm sure that's not the intended consequence, but I could be problematic.

The issue with that claim is xsnow already displayed the Ukrainian flag regardless. And it's in no way a critical app most people would even have installed to begin with. I had no idea it was even still being maintained.

Re: Xsnow "protestware" in Debian

#25

Post by sombragris » Tue, Jun 30, 2026, 6:07 PM UTC

krunck wrote: post #14

One comment really nails the problem with this sort of thing: " People in Western countries don't realize how bad the situation on the ground actually is¹; random Ukrainian flags showing up on your work monitor can result in severe problems for you (like losing you job, or worse), especially if you work in the government sector. If they show up on your laptop in a random cafe or an airport, you might very well get a…

Slackware-current upgraded xsnow to the latest version in June 20th but applied a patch from ALT Linux that removed the protestware bits just because of this reason. I support this.

Re: Xsnow "protestware" in Debian

#26

Post by Svoka » Tue, Jun 30, 2026, 6:07 PM UTC

4bpp wrote: post #7

Svoka wrote: post #2

How is seeing more Ukrainian flags a discrimination? Discrimination implies something harmful. Like invading neighbor country and perpetrating genocide. This complaint says more about Ivanov than anything else.

The imputed discriminatory part is that the software only shows the additional flags to users with Russian locale, not that it shows the flags at all.

Not sure you know what discrimination is.

Re: Xsnow "protestware" in Debian

#27

Post by dgellow » Tue, Jun 30, 2026, 6:08 PM UTC

krunck wrote: post #14

One comment really nails the problem with this sort of thing: " People in Western countries don't realize how bad the situation on the ground actually is¹; random Ukrainian flags showing up on your work monitor can result in severe problems for you (like losing you job, or worse), especially if you work in the government sector. If they show up on your laptop in a random cafe or an airport, you might very well get a…

They don’t have to use the software. It’s such a non issue. Xsnow is closer to art than critical software, you can easily ditch it

Re: Xsnow "protestware" in Debian

#28

Post by orbital-decay » Tue, Jun 30, 2026, 6:08 PM UTC

Svoka wrote: post #20

bradrn wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This point in the comments made me think twice: > People in Western countries don't realize how bad the situation on the ground actually is; random Ukrainian flags showing up on your work monitor can result in severe problems for you (like losing you job, or worse), especially if you work in the government sector. If they show up on your laptop in a random cafe or an airport, you might very well get a beating from on…

Oh no! Imagine the horror of losing your job. It compares nothing to literal genocide their army perpetrating. And yes, it is their, not their government, not some mysterious leaders. Russians reelected same government for 35 years with it invading neighbours pretty much every 5 years.

Imagine living in the occupied part and being sent to the basement for this. Probably not that black and white now... although seeing both activist and slacktivist types being very loud about the land but not the people over and over again, I wouldn't be entirely surprised if you don't care.

Re: Xsnow "protestware" in Debian

#29

Post by DiabloD3 » Tue, Jun 30, 2026, 6:10 PM UTC

Svoka wrote: post #20

bradrn wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This point in the comments made me think twice: > People in Western countries don't realize how bad the situation on the ground actually is; random Ukrainian flags showing up on your work monitor can result in severe problems for you (like losing you job, or worse), especially if you work in the government sector. If they show up on your laptop in a random cafe or an airport, you might very well get a beating from on…

Oh no! Imagine the horror of losing your job. It compares nothing to literal genocide their army perpetrating. And yes, it is their, not their government, not some mysterious leaders. Russians reelected same government for 35 years with it invading neighbours pretty much every 5 years.

As a reminder, the most dangerous job in Russia is "opposition leader".

Re: Xsnow "protestware" in Debian

#30

Post by Arodex » Tue, Jun 30, 2026, 6:11 PM UTC

krunck wrote: post #14

One comment really nails the problem with this sort of thing: " People in Western countries don't realize how bad the situation on the ground actually is¹; random Ukrainian flags showing up on your work monitor can result in severe problems for you (like losing you job, or worse), especially if you work in the government sector. If they show up on your laptop in a random cafe or an airport, you might very well get a…

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