APC Magazine: Clocks

Written By
Web Webster
Web Webster
Mar 31, 1999

“A clock consistently displaying the wrong time can be
infuriating, but Linux offers several options to set the hour of
the day.”

“When Linux boots, the hardware clock is used to set Linux’s own
clock, called the ‘system clock’. Once the system clock is set, the
hardware clock is ignored until the next time you boot.”

“DOS and Windows, the hardware clock is usually set to the local
time, but if you only run Linux on your computer, it is possible to
set the hardware clock to UTC (also known as Greenwich Mean Time or
GMT) and have Linux automatically calculate the correct local time
based on your time zone. This even takes into account daylight
saving, so you’ll have one less electronic device to change the
time on twice a year. You could of course keep the hardware clock
in UTC even if you were running DOS or Windows, but the time would
then always be incorrect in that OS.”


Complete story
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Web Webster

Web Webster

Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.

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