Bug of feature? [LWN.net]

Bug of feature?

Posted Jun 30, 2026 16:56 UTC (Tue) by farnz (subscriber, #17727)
In reply to: Bug of feature? by rgmoore
Parent article: Xsnow "protestware" in Debian

The challenge is deciding where the line is - if, for example, my country passes a law that says that putting the work "gnome" on a screen is offensive, and punishable by death, should Debian then remove GNOME from the repositories?

When a ban on the possession of "hacking tools" was proposed (which later got watered down sensibly to "possession with intent to commit an offence"), should Debian have removed tcpdump, aircrack-ng, nmap and other packages that could reasonably have been deemed "hacking tools"?

Remember that the easter egg is not "display a Ukrainian flag"; it's "display it more frequently". So, if you're saying that Debian should not have software that could endanger someone in the Russian Federation's safety, you're implicitly saying that no Debian software should display the Ukrainian flag, since that's the problem action; should Debian include censoring software to prevent web browsers displaying a "bad" flag (such as the Ukrainian or Taiwanese flags) by default, that you need to configure off if you're OK with those flags being shown?

to post comments

Bug of feature?

Posted Jun 30, 2026 17:25 UTC (Tue) by evgeny (subscriber, #774) [Link] (7 responses)

> The challenge is deciding where the line is - if, for example, my country passes a law that says that putting the work "gnome" on a screen is offensive, and punishable by death, should Debian then remove GNOME from the repositories?

I'm not sure your hypothetical example is any better than the aforementioned "baby-mulching" machine. But let's take this for granted. OK, there is such a country, obviously run by a demonic government. And now I create software (which doesn't have this in its description) that randomly displays this forbidden word on the screen. Moreover, out of my hatred of this government, I decided to show this problematic word much more frequently if the user happens to live in that country, thereby increasing the chances that the user ends their days sooner. Now, I want to hear your opinion: do you believe this is ethical?

> So, if you're saying that Debian should not have software that could endanger someone in the Russian Federation

No, I say that Debian should not have software that *specifically*, *intentially*, and *knowingly* could endanger someone in *any* place in the world.

Bug of feature?

Posted Jun 30, 2026 18:40 UTC (Tue) by pizza (subscriber, #46) [Link] (6 responses)

> No, I say that Debian should not have software that *specifically*, *intentially*, and *knowingly* could endanger someone in *any* place in the world.

Under this standard, most of Debian will have to be removed.

(remember, "intentionally" covers things that are _not_ implemented, such as age verification)

Bug of feature?

Posted Jun 30, 2026 19:00 UTC (Tue) by evgeny (subscriber, #774) [Link] (5 responses)

Really? Does Debian disable age verification specifically in regions that require it?

Bug of feature?

Posted Jun 30, 2026 19:50 UTC (Tue) by pizza (subscriber, #46) [Link] (4 responses)

> Does Debian disable age verification specifically in regions that require it?

By _not implementing_ age verification in regions that require it (including by distributing software that does not, ie effectively everything in the archive), they are "endangering users" in those jurisdictions.

At this point, that "not implementing" is both *intentional* and *knowing*.

Another example, more concrete -- Debian includes 'torbrowser', use of which is criminal in many jurisdictions. Debian is therefore endangering those users, and by your logic, torbrowser should be yanked from the archive for everyone else.

Bug of feature?

Posted Jun 30, 2026 20:10 UTC (Tue) by evgeny (subscriber, #774) [Link] (3 responses)

Whether to use the Tor browser is at the user's discretion. Debian doesn't install it by default, nor makes it the default browser. And it certainly doesn't do it on purpose, specifically in the places where its use is forbidden. If you don't see the principal difference with the behavior of xsnow, I give up explaining my point. Let's close this thread.

Bug of feature?

Posted Jun 30, 2026 23:36 UTC (Tue) by pizza (subscriber, #46) [Link] (2 responses)

> Whether to use the Tor browser is at the user's discretion. Debian doesn't install it by default, nor makes it the default browser.

So what? By providing it, Debian knowingly endangers its users in some jursidictions. That's your standard, not mine.

Your standard would effectively reduce Debian to a tiny subset containing only what is allowed in the most restrictive jurisdictions.

> If you don't see the principal difference with the behavior of xsnow, I give up explaining my point. Let's close this thread.

The folks enforcing those laws don't care about nuance; your guilt is established by mere possession of that unacceptable (==illegal) software. Therefore even making them available is endangering those users, and as such should be excluded from Debian.

Welcome to the real world.

Bug of feature?

Posted Jul 1, 2026 0:42 UTC (Wed) by alx.manpages (subscriber, #145117) [Link] (1 responses)

I see some difference between someone researching into what is the Tor browser and later installing it, versus trying some funny game, which is described as

```
Description-en: brings Christmas to your desktop
Xsnow is a X Window application that will snow on the desktop background.
Santa and his reindeer will complete your festive-season feeling.
Xsnow runs in GNOME, KDE, FVWM and desktops that are derived from those.
```

If one installs Tor, they might be endangered, but they are most likely aware that they are or at least might be endangered.

If one installs xsnow or xpenguins, one wouldn't expect to be endangered in any way (other than maybe being fired for installing games at work, if your work fires people for that).

It is the awareness and expectation that is important.

Bug of feature?

Posted Jul 1, 2026 14:17 UTC (Wed) by bronson (subscriber, #4806) [Link]

If you're living in a situation where blue-over-yellow will land you in jail, then no general-purpose distribution is safe for you to run. None of them. Arguing over individual packages seems unproductive.