One of reader William Taber’s Macs has come unstuck in time. He writes:
I live in Indiana, which for the first time in decades, has adopted Daylight Saving Time this year. I have two Macs running Mac OS X. My Power Mac G4 is on OS X 10.3.9 with the latest system updates. My PowerMac G5 is on OS X 10.4.5 with the latest system updates. I set both Macs’ time zones to Indianapolis, but when Daylight Savings Time was supposed to happen, they displayed different times. The G5 showed implementation of DST correctly, while the G4 did not recognize that it should be on DST. If I changed my G4’s time zone to Boston, it displayed the correct time. Is there a way to use the Indianapolis time zone setting on OS X 10.3.9 and have it recognize DST, or must I upgrade to OS X 10.4.x for it to work correctly?
You’ve pretty much stumbled on the answer, William. The Mac OS X 10.4.5 Update contains rules that have been updated to accommodate Indiana’s adoption of DST. Regrettably, Apple hasn’t issued such an update for those using versions of the Mac OS prior to 10.4.
Those whose Indiana Mac’s operating system isn’t completely up-to-date should do as you have done and spring ahead by choosing an Eastern time zone city in the Date & Time system preference.