The Xfce desktop environment for Linux may be fast and flexible — but it’s currently affected by a very serious flaw.

Users of this lightweight alternative to GNOME and KDE have reported that the choice of default wallpaper in Xfce is causing damaging to laptop displays and LCD monitors.

And there’s damning photographic evidence to back the claims up.

Xfce Bug #12117

“The default desktop startup screen causes damage to monitor!” screams one user in a bug filed on the Xfce bugzilla.

“The defualt wallpaper is having my animal scritch (sic) all the plastic off my LED MONITOR! Can we choose a different wallpaper? I cannot expect the scratches and whu not? Let’s end the mouse games over here.”

The flaw — or should that be claw? — is not isolated to just one user’s desktop either. Other users have been able to reproduce the issue, albeit inconsistently, as this second, separate photo an affected Reddtior proves:

It’s not clear whether the lay with Xfce or with cats. If it’s the latter the hope for a fix is moot; like cheap Android phones cats do not receive upgrades from their OEM.

‘for users of Xfce on other Linux distributions the outlook is less paw-sitive’

Thankfully Xubuntu users are not affected by clawful issue. This is because the Xfce-based Ubuntu flavor ships with its own, mouse-free desktop wallpaper.

But for users of Xfce on other Linux distributions the outlook is less paw-sitive.

A patch has been proposed to fix the foul up but is yet to be accepted upstream. If you’re at all concerned by bug #12117 you can apply the patch manually on your own system by downloading the image below and setting it as your wallpaper.

via /r/linux