Sorry to disagree with one setting for language and locale (date formatting ect…)
Normally use English language settings and a Dutch locale setting (on Linux, Windows even Android…)
If the Nethserver settings could be propagated as default start-up to apps this would be a nice Feature. Not that easy I’m afraid, all apps have their own methods for this.
And should be optional because there may be sysadmins who prefer English while the users may prefer their native language as default.
98% of all users will use consistent language and locale settings and are not mixing them up, so nethserver should solve the 98% use case. However I agree, it would be nice to have an option for user specific settings. It least the default must be set correctly.
Certainly untrue in the Netherlands, sure small country therefore it makes sense to use English language for software.
Working for a Dutch firm now (+250 employees), al software (windows10 / Office) English.
Also worked for a German internationally operating firm, al software English. (had to ask for an other laptop with a us-qwerty keyboard, the German keyboard was killing me… 
)
So would not be so sure about the 98%
Please, one size fits all is a not good way to assume things and develop software. Nethserver is telling the same thing… 
For the 2% there is the option to set a special settings, however the 90% case should be standard and easily be default. Currently nearly 100% have to customize the settings (including the 2%).
I can respect your experience, but if i have to speak as 98% of the time ti risponderei così, and i should not answer to you in english… 
Your user case is 98% of the time the same language all accross NethServer? Fine by me, is your user case and i can get the experience.
But again… one size does not fit all Even if it covers most cases.
I never asked for “one size fits all”. Currently 100% of all non-english users have to configure the settings for EACH user in nethserver, even you (because you use mixed settings). I was asking for a way to change the DEFAULT to something else e.g. German, so that all users gets this setting as the DEFAULT instead of the English. This would make it easier for 98% of all non-english users, apart from those, which always use mixed settings, but they don’t have any extra effort.
I think there should be a Nethserver settings for Default Language, Locale and Timezone in Nethserver and this should be used by as many applications as possible. Maybe Language and Locale can be merged into one settings, but it seems that there a people who like to configure it separately. In the Nethserver Webstop settings two of these settings are already there, they should be moved to the central Nethserver setting and they should be used (currently the default language is always English).
I totally agree with @pike: one size does not fit all.
Also, every programming language and application handle the locale in different ways so a common configuration is simply not possible.
No, locale and timezone configuration must be configured for each application.
Still the application can read the system locale and see if it fits for its use case, but it’s just a guess and most of the time will not fit 
So I advise against doing so to all module developers
It is simply not true, that it is impossible. Locale, language and timezone settings are standardized and almost every application has a settings for this. The same as nethserver uses its database to distribute a lot of other settings to several applications it should (if possible) try to distribute language settings to its supported applications. There should be a central settings in the db which could be queried in the varius applications as a default.
If you have a server with 10 applications and 20 users it is totally unsuable to login 200 times to configure the same language settings for each user and application. NO OTHER small business server system works this way.
So for timezone, language and locale there should definitely:
From a certain perspective nothing is impossible, you can code everything.
Impossible in this case means that it’s not in our hand. We can’t change or provide code for all 3rd party apps. NethServer relies on upstream.
As regards Nextcloud it is impossible as I already told you:
For Webtop you need to edit the Webtop database to change language automatically, for Sogo there’s a config file but setting language does not work. In Sogo you have the possibility to choose the language at login. More and more apps just use the browser language. So it’s impossible for some apps and much effort for the others.
Here are 3 explanations:
Please believe it 
As said, I like the idea but it’s really hard to impossible to achieve it.
I understand your concern but I think nowadays it’s expected that users can change the language themselves in their apps profile settings. At work I use mattermost and dokuwiki for providing documentation to the users how to configure their apps/desktop etc.
Which small business server does it better?
Maybe he’s talking about Microsoft Products?
I don’t know if it’s really comparable.
MS products use the OS language or they have hardcoded language and additional language packs (maybe not translating the whole app). I don’t think the MS approach is easier in that point, especially if you have multi-language users.
Actually it is very easy: Nethserver applications (like Webtop and Nextcloud) should just set the default language and default locale setting from the central configuration. . Nethserver should just set the two variables
config/config.php:
“default_language” => “de”,
“default_locale” => “de_DE”,
if “German” and “German locale” is set.
If I then have a Nethserver with central setting “German”, install nextcloud and create some users, all users will have German settings, unless someone’s browser sends a different language setting or the user sets a different one. There is no real need to force people (even though this could be an extra option “try to force language settings” in Nethserver).
This is exactly what is needed: The default is correct out of the box without any extra configuration, but anyone is able to set different settings on it’s own. Currrently I have to edit the settings for every new user and every application which is incredibly annyoing. I just want to have everything in German, and have to customize every application what is even more annyoing every new user manually.
To summarize:
There is a central setting for default language, locale and Timezone in Nethserver (very similar to the settings currently available only for Webtop) and nethserver-applications should try to set this default language for themselfs. The most prominent applications would be NextCloud and Webtop.
I like the idea and I think the best approach would be to be able to set a language default for all apps, not by default but on demand. But it’s partly not possible or at least much effort.
What about existing users? Should we iterate through the app databases and set a language for any user?
I hope that sooner or later all apps use browser language or have the language setting at login like Sogo. This way we have no effort and the users have most flexibility.
Sorry for repeating but you can only force one language for all users and users can’t change it afterwards. If that’s ok for you just add it to /usr/share/nextcloud/config/config.php.
For Webtop you could change the system language as admin. I hope that afterwards a new user logs in with that language but I didn’t test. To set it automatically we need to edit the webtop database and that’s not a good practice.
You can force one language for Nextcloud and change the Webtop language as admin before other users log in and you’re ready.
I think this could be added manually with a quick edit of a file. But as said, no other language is possible then.
Sure, but it would be better, if Nethserver would do this automatically via a cockpit settings like it does (or try to do) for Webtop. For Webtop there is already such a setting and my only simple suggestion is:
Redefine the Webtop5 specific setting to a general setting for many applications, especially NextCloud and Webtop5.
This would improve user experiance a log, because you could just install a nethserver installation from the ISO with settings “German” (or something else), end have nethserver, nextcloud and webtop in for very user without digging through documentation or configuring lots of users.
I’d prefer to add a force language setting to Nextcloud.
I think it’s ok to set the language for each app one time. This way you keep the language flexibility.
Adding a central setting for two apps seems not right to me.
I’m still not able to do cockpit GUI dev so I can’t help.
If you really like the feature, please open a #feature request.
The most important feature is, that the default works for every app and user without tedious setup, like now “english” is the default, it should be possible to change it it “german is the default”. IMHO in most installations all users will use the same single language in all applications.
“Force language” could be an option, but there is no real need to prevent someone to use a different language. If implemented it should be an only an option.
It is not just for two applications but all application to now and to come, where it is possible to change the default language.
How to open a feature? Here or on github?