In the xsnow application, which implements the effect of falling snow on the desktop, a hidden change has been introduced that shows the Ukrainian flag with a probability of 2%. For users with a Russian locale, this probability increases to 30%. This activity is also present in the Debian package xsnow provided in the Debian 13 repository.
In a complaint sent to the Debian Quality Assurance Team, responsible for maintaining quality in Debian, it was stated that such unusual behavior does not meet the requirements for software that may be distributed in Debian, as it can be regarded as discrimination based on membership in a specific user group and discrimination based on the area of use. Specifically, xsnow alters its behavior and directs addressing towards a specific category of users, changing the expected neutral functionality based on the user's environment.
The points mentioned in the complaint refer to Debian's rules that define the unacceptability of discrimination only in code licenses and not in program behavior. Debian's rules do not regulate actions in case of attempts to promote political statements or behaviors that diverge from the declared functionality in software. Formally, such activity in Debian has not been prohibited.
As a possible course of action, considering the program's protest actions could be interpreted as an error or undocumented behavior requiring a patch to restore neutral and expected functionality is under discussion. However, the situation is complicated by the fact that the maintainer of the xsnow package in Debian is the author of this program, who introduced the undocumented behavior in question.
Source: opennet.ru
