So I am a recent convert to SFML from SDL. (No regrets. Until now.)
I am using SFML 1.6 and was following the OpenGL tutorial for such and when I tried to compile my code the screen was all torn looking and was a weird twisted mishmash of my desktop background and desktop elements (i.e. taskbar) and it appeared as if it was some weird OpenGL texture issue that has happened with some steam games I own.
I figured it was a problem with what I typed like some weird bracket or typo error so I downloaded the source code from the actual tutorial and it gave me the same result.
Here's some specs and I'm happy to give any other information required
Xubuntu 12.10
Compaq Presario CQ56-129N
It's an AMD based processor (64-bit system) with an Mobile Radeon HD graphics card.
Code Blocks IDE
Also if it's somehow relevant I installed sfml via a debian package with the
sudo apt-get install libsfml*
command
Also just found out that no matter what everything is always full screen now even in applications that don't use any of the OpenGL stuff. For example the tutorial where you simply open a window.