Linux Systems and the New DST

An anonymous reader writes "The recent changes in the Daylight Saving Time will affect virtually all computer systems in the US one week from now. Microsoft has been busy preparing Windows users for 'Y2DST,' and all the major Linux distributions have also issued patches. How can you be sure your Linux systems are ready, and what can you do to get them ready if they're not? This how-to article at Linux-Watch answers both questions in simple language and with easy-to-follow instructions."

Root Cause

[overshoot]

Or, of course, you could have dealt with the root cause of the problem: the biannual insanity of running around changing otherwise perfectly good clocks.

How many of you, after all, have told your State legislatures that this is stupid and it's time to opt out?

Re:Root Cause

[Rob the Bold]

How many of you, after all, have told your State legislatures that this is stupid and it's time to opt out?

I like DST. I know how to set what clocks I have that still need to be changed. I enjoy the extra light at the end of the day. I am aware that I could just get up an hour early and try to convince everyone else that I have to deal with to do the same, but DST accomplishes that. Also, I live in a city that spans state lines, so having one state opt out would be a real hassle.

I would much rather lobby my legislature to allow wine to be shipped directly to my door. For crying out loud, I can get ammo delivered (and left on the doorstep) without even a signature, why can't I buy wine directly.

So, for all of those who dislike DST, try this: Just get up an hour later.

Let the circus begin

[phoenixwade]

the media has been touting this as the next Y2K. Just think, a week from now, we'll be commenting on all the articles documenting the plans falling from the sky, governments folding, stock markets crashing and burning. Toasters and Microwave ovens slaughtering entire familys before they escape to live in cross breed sin near Three mile Island and Chernobyl.

My only regret was that I didn't milk that last consultant fee from a client before my router ran me over and stole my truck.

Re:Win vs Lin

[Anonymous Coward]

If you're competent in your Windows adminstration, then there isn't any danger of your entire system breaking.

Exactly. All the competent Windows admins have already switched to Linux.

Re:Win vs Lin

[fbjon]

Don't tell me you're timestamping with local time? Always use UTC and convert to local time on the fly, it avoids all these problems.

Re:Win vs Lin

[Anonymous Coward]

Funny how with Linux there isn't any danger of your entire system breaking. I know we spent every day since the Windows patches were relased, testing and make sure the patches don't break anything. So far our Exchange server had to be restored from backup once already b/c all the calendar entries got screwed up.

As much as I like linux, you are confusing two separate things: operating systems and applications. It is very easy to update windows to use the new DST rules. Frankly, even without patching, windows will not break, the clock will be off by an hour.

However, since exchange is (amongst other things) a calendaring application, all of the times of your schedule need to be checked if they are between the old DST change date and the new DST change date, and adjusted accordingly, otherwise your schedule will be off by an hour.

Microsoft has free tools & published procedures tools to update exchange. If you didn't follow them, that is your problem.

A problem with DST in general

[Bigmilt8]

Actually this isn't a problem with any OS or the computer industry. It is a problem with Daylight Savings Time. Man has been telling time for centuries and it wasn't until the DST mess that we started having issues. This is on the same lines as the US not using the metric system.

Re:Root Cause

[Anonymous Coward]

So, for all of those who dislike DST, try this: Just get up an hour later.

I found this quotation in the zoneinfo [twinsun.com] data file for North America:

I don't really care how time is reckoned so long as there is some agreement about it, but I object to being told that I am saving daylight when my reason tells me that I am doing nothing of the kind. I even object to the implication that I am wasting something valuable if I stay in bed after the sun has risen. As an admirer of moonlight I resent the bossy insistence of those who want to reduce my time for enjoying it. At the back of the Daylight Saving scheme I detect the bony, blue-fingered hand of Puritanism, eager to push people into bed earlier, and get them up earlier, to make them healthy, wealthy and wise in spite of themselves.

-- Robertson Davies, The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks, 1947, XIX, Sunday

I'm worried...

[FuzzyDaddy]

I have an international flight on Monday the 12th.

I'm coming four hours early.

Recent? It was two years ago...

[binaryspiral]

It was two years ago that this was signed into affect... this shouldn't be the rush that Microsoft, Cisco, and all the rest are making it. Slackers wasted one and a half years doing almost nothing... and now we get this.

Re:Root Cause

[freeweed]

I am aware that I could just get up an hour early and try to convince everyone else that I have to deal with to do the same, but DST accomplishes that.

Absolutely. Never mind the fact that if we all shifted our schedules by an hour twice a year, then every single store sign displaying their hours would have to be changed twice a year, bus schedules would all have to be re-printed twice a year, hell ANYTHING with times on it would have to be changed twice a year. With DST we retain the same schedules, but you have to change your watch to match. Going to UTC only works if you never ever leave your timezone - or else you'd have to be making on-the-fly calculations every time you tried to remember what time the movie is at, or when the store closes, or what have you. Having a common time reference point means never having to worry about "hmm, when exactly is 5pm now that I'm on the other coast?".

I've never understood why people think DST is "complicated". Shift your clocks twice a year (takes me all of 10 seconds as the computers take care of the rest). That extra hour of daylight after work is seriously awesome. Everyone, after about a day, adjusts and retains the same 24 hour cycle we run on - office hours are typically 9-5, at midnight odds are it will be pitch black out, that sort of thing.

Honestly, if getting up an hour earlier for one day in April (now March) messes with your internal clock THAT much, I shudder to think what life would be like when you have children.

Re:Win vs Lin

[ciggieposeur]

So what do YOU do when a single meeting spans two timezones?

Re:It probably should

[Viol8]

And what happens if someone if one country/state wants to connect to an NTP server in another? If that NTP server only gives its local time then that computer will get the wrong time and if it gives all timezone times then not only will it send FAR more data but you'll STILL have to set the timezone in your machine anyway so it can select the correct one from NTP.

So I'm afraid your idea is a non starter.

I wonder

[ajs318]

I wonder why we don't just keep GMT (or whatever your local time zone is in Winter, when midday occurs about 12:00) all year around, but have businesses open from 19:00 to 17:00 in the Winter and 08:00 to 16:00 in the Summer? That way, there is no need for messing about with clocks or anything (except the alarm). After all, the hours of daylight (which increase steadily from Yule until Midsummer) are always split evenly around midday, whether you call it 12:00, 13:00 or even 14:00. But 12:00 is just a nice figure to use when it's midday.

Re:Simple

[Intron]

You can use a cron to do this in the spring, but I wouldn't recommend it in the fall.