> I don't know whether the clock applet has been converted to use KDateTime
> or KTimeZones yet. (KDateTime only exists on KDE 4 - I don't know which KDE
> version you're referring to.)

The clock applet in KDE 3.5.x does indeed use the KTimeZones stuff.

> > I'd first suggest rethinking the design. Say, a kded module (with the
> > right kded startup phase, see kdebase/ksmserver/README) that does
> > whatever initial checks needed, saves the current timezone to some config
> > file and KTimeZone uses only that.
>
> What should happen during startup if an application requests time zone
> information before the kded module has run?

How about an environment variable? If that made sense, it might be possible to 
combine that with this idea for per-user TZ settings in KDE: 

http://lists.kde.org/?l=kde-pim&m=112379368522252&w=2