So here's the deal -- I'm dual-booting Mac OS X and Windows XP on my MacBook. On Mac OS X, I have the clock synced to network time. And, being a good Unix system, it sets the system time to GMT.
That's all fine and dandy until I install Windows, which uses localtime. I had to disable network time on Windows to keep my time from being screwed up every time I switched operating systems, so at the moment only Windows has its time wrong. I'd like to know of a way to set Windows to use GMT, but from what I've read it isn't possible;
http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2004/09/02/224672.aspx
Another reason for keeping the BIOS clock on local time is to avoid confusing people who set their time via the BIOS itself. If you hit the magic key during the power-on self-test, the BIOS will go into its configuration mode, and one of the things you can configure here is the time. Imagine how confusing it would be if you set the time to 3pm, and then when you started Windows, the clock read 11am.
"Stupid computer. Why did it even ask me to change the time if it's going to screw it up and make me change it a second time?"
And if you explain to them, "No, you see, that time was UTC, not local time," the response is likely to be "What kind of totally propeller-headed nonsense is that? You're telling me that when the computer asks me what time it is, I have to tell it what time it is in London? (Except during the summer in the northern hemisphere, when I have to tell it what time it is in Reykjavik!?) Why do I have to remember my time zone and manually subtract four hours? Or is it five during the summer? Or maybe I have to add. Why do I even have to think about this? Stupid Microsoft. My watch says three o'clock. I type three o'clock. End of story."
Has Microsoft in all their wisdom crippled functionality because they thought it wasn't user-friendly? Or am I missing something?