What am I missing with the LANG =C setting? How to enable it system wide?

If you *really* want to change the LANG setting globally, do it in Yast using the sysconfig editor. Look for the RC_LANG variable. However, note that if you do this your internationalisation support may suffer. The reason SUSE switched to using UTF-8 as default is that ultimately this is the way things are going. UTF8 is on balance a good thing (imho) because it frees us once and for all from the mess that was codepages. Note that it isn't UTF8 per se that slows down the startup, but one particular aspect of UTF8 support - the parsing of the input locale by X11. If that could be accelerated you could have the best of both worlds - the convenience of UTF8 and the faster startup of LANG=C. With respect to prelinking, it has its pros and cons. There are still some apps which don't like it, and you have to re-prelink after updating libs etc. I was interested to note that SuSE have put in place a prelink configuration, including a "blacklist" of apps not to prelink, so perhaps they are moving in this direction. It would be nice, for example, to have an option at the end of the install to go and prelink everything. Legal Disclaimer: Any views expressed by the sender of this message are not necessarily those of Application Solutions Ltd. Information in this e-mail may be confidential and is for the use of the intended recipient only, no mistake in transmission is intended to waive or compromise such privilege. Please advise the sender if you receive this e-mail by mistake.