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 beating from one of many "war heroes" that walk around the cities these days.
No, the government sector doesn't just make missiles and bombs, it also covers schools, hospitals, many other things."
And that's not even so bad compared to what would happen to somebody in occupied Ukraine: they would be sent to "the basement." That's the euphemism for the local torture chamber, outside of which they deposit the dead bodies of the tortured to let everybody in the area know what happens if they do something like speak Ukrainian.
Note that xsnow already displayed such flags randomly, and this just changes the probability.
So, if you're in a location where displaying the Ukraine flag will get you shot, 1) it was already not safe to run xsnow, and 2) much more importantly, I genuinely hope you can successfully escape your situation.
When the war started, Europeans were forcing famous Russians living in Europe to denounce their government's evils. For example an opera house demanded a Russian opera singer to say something against the regime or be "blacklisted".
As if it's so fucking easy to denounce a dictator who has murderous tendencies and who rules your homeland, as if it's so easy to insult him, and then what, not be able to return home and see your friends and family until that dictator is defeated?
I found those demands so unthinkingly heartless, it's responding to tyranny with your own tyranny...
I mean, it's easy to be apolitical and stay in russia. They can always do that and not break the russian social contract.
Молчание - знак согласия
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
The naïveté of that position is that the users are not informed ahead of time that there's a random chance of a political protest popping up on their screen, so do not get to make an informed choice before it is perhaps too late. It's not mentioned in the doco. It's obfuscated in the source code as an 'extra tree' in an array of xpmtrees. The commit that added this had the commit message 'willem'.
Please, tell me, who is ever using xsnow in a place where that would be problematic? It’s such a niche software. Again, complete non-issue.
So 3% of the pop uses Linux. I shouldn't be surprised that 3% of those use Debian. I WOULD be surprised to find that more than 1 in 10k has EVER used xsnow 1 in 1M running it continually. Note this is actually wildly overstated. I have not even touched on the settings which would show flags.
Then we have to imagine they run xsnow all the time and somehow don't notice the dangerous political stuff OR run it for the first time.
If we start with 140M Russians this has certainly never happened and will almost certainly NEVER happen.
It is actually far more likely that someone should actually get caught using it trying to see the flags and have to explain that to their boss.
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.
How is this an issue? Xsnow is a novelty. You have to make two decisions: the first to still be using Xorg at all, the second to install the application itself which is essentially a gag screensaver.
The idea that some govt employee would get fired for this is extremely far fetched.
Wouldn't that be.. acceptable, if not entirely the point? Raising awareness? Some rando getting arrested for a screensaver they didn't know contained a flag is pretty efficient propaganda and would likely turn at least the involved people and their inner circles? It might not be the point but I doubt they'd be disappointed
That's also a good argument for completely removing rainbow flags from everything, in more countries than one. Will we see that happening?
This sounds like a you problem. Suppose you have software that shows famous faces and quotes as a screensaver would you make it by default not show anyone of color so it would be acceptable in rural Oklahoma or make it show no women so it would be acceptable in Iran?
In rural Oklahoma, it is entirely acceptable to have “anyone of colour” portrayed in something like a screensaver.
I don’t know much about Iran, but depictions of women seem common in advertising there.
Most women whom one would display inspirational quotes wouldn't be displayed in a head scarf as they would come from a range of cultures most of which don't have the same restrictions. I think that the point is that political moral and cultural norms aren't neutral and many are just morally deficient and free software shouldn't be in the business of pretending that Nazis and Jews are 2 different groups with equally valid rights not to be offended.
This is a corporate mindset we adopt because we want everyone's business not a useful or correct attitude for individuals who aren't the beneficiaries of the publics money in the first place.
The Russian aggression is evil, the Russian culture as a whole is abhorrent. We shouldn't be afraid to call it out and fight back. I would be ok if every Debian terminal printed a message raising donations for the defense of Ukraine.
Its free software so Russians worried about political correctness herein meaning defense of mass murder torture and genocide can run a fork which boots up to Russian military propaganda if they like.
I thought it would talk about the situation on the ground in Ukraine, but no...
Will anyone think of the poor Russians just trying to go on with their lives?
Do people in Russia realize how bad the situation is on the ground for Ukrainians?
>No, the government sector doesn't just make missiles and bombs, it also covers schools, hospitals, many other things.
Schools forming future soldiers, hospitals healing soldiers so that they can go back to the front...
The naivety here is astounding. The commenter, those who agree with him and all "normal" Russians would benefit to read Hannah Arendt:
https://philosophybreak.com/articles/hannah-arendt-on-standi...
Cue the famous quote...
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2010/12/04/good-men-do/
So, are you American? What are you doing about your governments funding and supplying of genocide? Your litany of excuses also apply to the average Russian...
Nope, European, from a country that did the most to oppose Israel, despite the fact it is very difficult for any continental European country to do so as we are tainted by the Shoah...
And America is electing more and more anti-israel politicians.
https://www.axios.com/2026/06/28/republican-party-israel-net...
https://www.axios.com/2026/04/15/iran-war-israel-democrats-c...
Except most Russians support their government and believe its lies...
Of the Russians I know (some still in Russia), not a single one supports United Russia party, although that does mean we have to communicate rather… secretly? these days.
I can say that about Americans. What proof do you have, or do you "just know it"?
https://nestcentre.org/what-russians-think-about-the-war-aga...
> For most ordinary Russians, the war is not a central concern. This may sound cynical, but it’s the truth.
> When they do think about it, they tend to view it much like the weather: something that one may or may not like, but which lies beyond individual control and to which one simply adapts.
I admire a friend of mine in London who every weekend went to anti-genocide rallies in London. But at the same time I can imagine it's excruciating work, yelling and protesting and not saving any single Palestinian child's life. Meanwhile in Russia, protesting will get you arrested and probably be sent to the frontline (as a man) or prison (as a woman). Given those choices, would you also not say "Well, I can be angry and depressed about the Ukranians (and my fellow countrymen forced to fight the war) being killed, or I can just go about my day and put this exhausting thought aside"...
Meanwhile in America, there's a political party using the Nazi playbook to subvert democracy and succeeding. Are you American? Are you doing everything to stop that, or do you see yourself powerless and so you go about your day and put that exhausting thought aside?
> I can say that about Americans.
Eh, you'd be wrong. It's a different issue in the US, half the population believe and vote for nonsense, the other half are strongly against it.
> What proof do you have, or do you "just know it"?
Friends with Russians, and try to read useful sources like Meduza. It's absolutely very much the case that most of that population are brainwashed and believe the state propaganda.
> Meanwhile in Russia, protesting will get you arrested and probably be sent to the frontline (as a man) or prison (as a woman).
Yes, so an armed uprising is necessary if voting is not an option. But if there is no will, there will be no effort.
> Meanwhile in America, there's a political party using the Nazi playbook to subvert democracy and succeeding.
America will still have elections, and we won't have to deal with our Putin-wannabe again after their term is up.
> America will still have elections, and we won't have to deal with our Putin-wannabe again after their term is up.
Heh.. Russia has "elections" too.
So easy to point and jeer and say "they're bad, but over here the circumstances are different!"...
As if armed uprisings are child's play, and those not rising against tyrants are cowards. I bet if you were in Russia, you'd also made excuses why you haven't joined the resistance and learned how to make bombs and kill FSB soldiers. Fact is "the will" only comes with backs against the wall, like when food runs out (Arab uprising) or it's no longer tolerable (Iran). And then what will the revolution bring? Who's in charge in Iran, Libya, Egypt? It's easy to be an armchair revolutionary calling people cowards and brainwashed from 10000 miles away..
Addendum: and if a Russian has sympathy for the Ukranians but is powerless to do anything, wouldn't it be attractive to start believing the lie that it's the Ukranians that are assholes, that they're also doing bad things (just look at the average Israeli's support of the genocide - "it's because they want to annihilate us!"); if you start believing that stuff, you can "forgive" yourself not doing anything against your tyrannical government.
Yeah, but is open source so if some of the extra rare "good Russians" do not like this super small chance of getting hurt then they diserve their regime, they will finally protest when the regime will affect their own lives but stay silent while other people get genocided.
I do not own any popular software to put anti Zed/Putin shit in it so sorry I can inconvinience those super rare good Russians.