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Idea #19332: Clock uses technically-defunct "GMT"

Written by nelson.blaha the 21 Apr 09 at 00:58. Related project: Gnome. Status: New
Rationale
"Greenwich Mean Time", while still widely in use as a colloquial term, is not the widely-used standard Universal Time (Coordinated) (UTC). Standards are a good thing.

"Greenwich Mean Time is a widely used historical term, but one that has been used in several ways. Because of the ambiguity, its use is no longer recommended in technical contexts."

http://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/astronomical-applications/astronomical-informatio n-center/universal-time
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45
votes
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Solution #1: Change clock to UTC
Written by nelson.blaha the 21 Apr 09 at 00:58.
Change every mention of GMT in the clock to UTC, the proper term.
23
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Solution #2: Change only the system clock to UTC
Written by James_Lochhead the 23 Apr 09 at 11:34.
I think nelson (solution #1) has his terms muddled. What would be a better idea would be:

UTC is a measure of atomic time (and yes is more accurate than GMT - it defers in fractions of a second). However, UTC is NOT a time zone, the time zone is GMT. Hence, GMT is not a colloquialism.

GMT should remain in the clock as the time zone for the UK and the Republic of Ireland, where it is the official time (several other countries, such as Iceland, also use it as the official time but use different names).

All references to GMT and the system clock should be changed to UTC as it is more technically correct.

Propose your solution

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cheesehead (Brainstorm admin) wrote on the 21 Apr 09 at 04:31
Could this be accomplished by filing bug reports against the affected packages?

jamesw (Ubuntu developer) wrote on the 22 Apr 09 at 20:36
Hi,

Could you point to some places that use GMT where they mean UTC?

Living in GMT for 6 months of every year I'm not sure what I would do if it was removed.

Thanks,

James

James_Lochhead wrote on the 23 Apr 09 at 11:37
Please check your facts nelson. GMT may be defunct in the US, however there are many other countries in the world other than the US (see solution #2).


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