On Thu, 2023-07-20 at 22:15 -0400, Jeffrey Walton wrote:
I think Tim is correct. There used to be a checkbox about the
hardware
clock. (Maybe it is still there?)
If it is, I don't think it was obvious. I don't recall seeing it for a
long time.
But I don't think the user is to blame. Users should not have to
do
extra the work. It is 2023, not 1986. Computers work for users, not
the other way around. Systemd should have determined how the realtime
clock is configured, and then acted accordingly. It's not our job to
tell systemd information it can readily gather itself.
I agree that computers should be doing most of the work for us, though
it can be difficult to determine is the clock set correctly,
incorrectly, or just to a different timezone.
It's one of those things where sensibly questioning the user during
installation a few things would be a good thing:
-----
Is this a single-boot PC? There are advantages in running the hardware
clock on UTC for Linux, do you want to do so?
Is this a dual-boot PC? There are difficulties in Windows handling the
hardware clock set to UTC, do you want to run it on local time?
Select your timezone.
Shows the hardware clock time to you. Is this the correct time?
Set it now? manually/automatically
-----
I know businesses use the auto-wake feature in BIOS/UEFI to start up
various PCs before their staff arrive (and sensible IT staff will
stagger them so they don't all start at the same time). It requires
mental gymnastics to do that if they're not running on localtime. And
it always required some tinkering to force Windows into accepting the
clock was on UTC (if you could, at all). Why do Microsoft always have
to be dragged kicking and screaming into doing sensible things?
There's a huge list of dumb things they do...
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