Time for Linux to learn a lesson

Linux fans, say what you will about Microsoft’s recent follies with regard to Daylight Savings Time, but at least they acknowledge that DST exists. Today I was configuring a Linux-based NAS device. To get it to work properly on my network, I had to make sure that its clock was synchronized with my server. It has a Time Zone field with a drop-down menu of choices. Here’s what a Windows time zone field looks like:

Here’s what my NAS device’s field looks like:

See the problem? Today I’m four hours behind GMT. But in a few months, I’ll be five hours behind. My Microsoft server understands this and will adjust automatically. My NAS device doesn’t. So I need to make a note to myself to adjust my NAS device’s time zone on November 4. And again next March 9. And again next November 2. And so on. What a pain. Notice that this problem has nothing to do with recent changes to the effective date for DST — this is just bad programming.

Certainly there are some Linux programmers who have figured out how to code properly for DST. But there’s no “Linux Pope” to make sure that the coding is done properly. And in this case, the hardware manufacturer fell asleep on the job.