Post #2316082
2026-05-09 13:34 UTC
Replies (5)
-
@goaserer@mastodontech.de 2026-05-09 14:13
The timezone database basically never drops entries as there are usecases that involve historical data. For an OS installer in 2026 you're right that, while technically correct, it is a bit pointless. From my experience most people don't really concern themselves with timezones, so presenting an obscure option most likely only causes confusion
-
@galaxis@mastodon.infra.de 2026-05-09 16:21
@sbeyer@ioc.exchange @alfonsosiciliano@mastodon.bsd.cafe ...and every couple of years, someone somewhere rewrites an OS installer, making everything much easier without all these weird edge cases, and surely there can't be any good reason against sorting timezone options alphabetically and make the one appearing first the default selection...? Yeah, sigh.
-
@alfonsosiciliano@mastodon.bsd.cafe 2026-05-09 16:22
@sbeyer@ioc.exchange The database still contains Büsingen, so the real question seems to be how a time zone selection program should deal with a single special-case entry in the database. Should it hardcode exceptions? “If country == Germany, ignore its zones” or “If zone == Büsingen, ignore it” Or should people modify the database locally instead? After all, these are still semi-official data used by several entities.
-
@kirjoittaessani@norden.social 2026-05-09 21:05
@sbeyer@ioc.exchange @alfonsosiciliano@mastodon.bsd.cafe Yes, it can -- at least theoretically -- still be relevant: if you calculate time differences involving a date that falls inside the period where time differed from the rest of Germany, the result wouldn't be correct.
-
@nytpu@tilde.zone 2026-05-09 23:45
@sbeyer@ioc.exchange @alfonsosiciliano@mastodon.bsd.cafe Well, historical data can't be entirely eliminated because time zones change pretty damn often (being politically defined) and you have to be able to have accurate dates going backwards to some degree; and then there's just never been much of a push (although a bit last year) to move "too old" historical data to a separate database given that there's wildly varying needs and opinions for what "too old" is.