I have a very mild protest in a package of mine [LWN.net]

I have a very mild protest in a package of mine

Posted Jun 29, 2026 15:26 UTC (Mon) by dskoll (subscriber, #1630)
Parent article: Xsnow "protestware" in Debian

I also have protestware in Remind, a calendar program I wrote. However, it's only visible if you run strings against the binary, so it's pretty unlikely to be noticed.

The program does come with a bunch of sample calendar files that mark important LGBTQ community days, and while I don't think these are protestware, they could be viewed as such in some countries. The manual page also has an example that commemorates the 1989 Tienamen Square massacre which, in China, is probably considered a very serious offence.

I don't think protestware is a problem unless it seriously interferes with the normal and intended use of the software, at which point it becomes a bug or even malware. And since it's open-source, people who are very offended by the protestware can remove it.

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I have a very mild protest in a package of mine

Posted Jun 29, 2026 15:51 UTC (Mon) by rbtree (guest, #129790) [Link] (3 responses)

As a Russian speaker who might very well have the ru locale running on his system, I'm personally fine with this "protestware" (at least it does not rm-rf your filesystem like some of them did back in 2022), but it is because I do not live in Russia.

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.

[1]: random example: a former Estonian president recently made a complete ass of himself by going to Xitter and publicly claiming that protesting and speaking against the war in Russia does *not* land you in prison for up to 8 years, so why are they silent and are doing nothing? Even the 1000%-pro-Ukraine Russian opposition was shocked.

I have a very mild protest in a package of mine

Posted Jun 29, 2026 16:44 UTC (Mon) by dskoll (subscriber, #1630) [Link]

I agree that any protestware should not show up by default, but should require some action on the part of the user or be buried in the man page. Putting users at risk is never good.

I have a very mild protest in a package of mine

Posted Jun 29, 2026 16:44 UTC (Mon) by mss (subscriber, #138799) [Link]

It looks like the controversial code block just changes the probability of Ukrainian flags appearing for the ru locale.

In other words, these flags could appear even for other locales, albeit then with much lower probability.

I have a very mild protest in a package of mine

Posted Jul 1, 2026 10:06 UTC (Wed) by mymedia (guest, #184859) [Link]

I do live in Russia, and I believe you are exaggerating. Nobody here cares of random Ukrainian flags on others' monitors, even at work.

In the government sector, ordinary staff do not install software themselves. It usually does a system administrator, like in any medium-to-large company. So it's unlikely someone would lose their job or get beaten because of a color combination that resembles a flag of a foreign country.