Language is part of locale

Posted Jan 16, 2012 9:37 UTC (Mon) by khim (subscriber, #9252)
In reply to: Language is part of locale by paulj
Parent article: Is Mandriva Finished This Time? (OStatic)

So why is the problem not solved by selecting something other than "English (US)" at the login screen?

Because world is filled with Ignoramuses who think they know better. It's why we have god knows how many timezone databases (typical system has at least three: system-wide, separate one in Java and yet another in MySQL), that's why program authors use language to choose between inches and meters instead of LC_MEASUREMENT, etc.

And this leads to the “solution” discussed here: instead of fixing programs and pushing changes upstream people multiply “localized” distributions which work for them and don't work for the rest of the world.