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[Bug 1392699] Re: Can't change locale settings (e.g. language, 12/24-hour time, date format) independently

 

Please note that for 5 years or so Ubuntu has provided GUIs for setting
language on one hand, and the formats related locale categories as a
whole on the other hand, separately. It's true that there has been no
GUI for setting the various formats related locale categories
independently. OTOH, I have followed the language/locale related bug
reports and Ask Ubuntu questions closely for quite a while, and my
impression is that few users would rate that feature high. (It's also
possible to fine tune the settings by editing e.g. ~/.profile.)

It should be noted that the example in the summary of this bug report -
changing 12/24-hour time and date format independently - can't be
accomplished by picking the different locale categories individually
anyway, since both are controlled by LC_TIME. To do that we would either
need to add a feature that creates and maintains a custom locale for
each user, or handle it in respective application.

As a first step, to make some progress and make it possible to fix bug
#1350275, I would recommend that a GUI is added to ubuntu-system-
settings for simply selecting regional formats independently from
selecting the display language. As illustrated by Alexey's workaround,
the backend in accountsservice for such a feature is already in place.

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1392699

Title:
  Can't change locale settings (e.g. language, 12/24-hour time, date
  format) independently

Status in libc package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid
Status in ubuntu-system-settings package in Ubuntu:
  Confirmed
Status in ubuntu-ui-toolkit package in Ubuntu:
  Invalid

Bug description:
  A. Try to use US English, but with all apps using 24-hour instead of 12-hour time. Or:
  B. Try to use UK English, but with all apps using YYYY-MM-DD date format.

  What happens: You can't.
  What should happen: You can.

  Since Ubuntu has existed, it has used the GNU locale system. This
  system assumes that every single person using a particular locale
  wants exactly the same settings for time display, date display,
  currency display, alphabetizing, and number formatting.
  <http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/manual/html_node/Effects-of-
  Locale.html>

  Windows, Mac OS, and (to a lesser extent) iOS have always been more
  flexible: setting a locale sets appropriate defaults for these
  settings, but you can also change them individually. Ubuntu should do
  the same.

  This might involve changing the locale system itself, or it might
  involve changing all relevant toolkits so that they ignore the locale
  system when appropriate.

  It would also involve adding settings in System Settings to customize
  the individual locale details.

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References