diff --git a/src/gtk/app.cpp b/src/gtk/app.cpp
index 3754531c01..7aba0eab72 100644
--- a/src/gtk/app.cpp
+++ b/src/gtk/app.cpp
@@ -288,6 +288,10 @@ bool wxApp::Initialize(int& argc_, wxChar **argv_)
     if ( !wxAppBase::Initialize(argc_, argv_) )
         return false;
 
+    // disable Ubuntu "overlay scrollbar" until we figure out how to keep it
+    // from messing up our window contents when scrolling, see ticket #14871
+    wxSetEnv(wxS("LIBOVERLAY_SCROLLBAR"), wxS("0"));
+
 #if wxUSE_THREADS
     if (!g_thread_supported())
     {