title: Why is it that UTF-8 encoding is used when interacting with a UNIX/Linux environment?
body: <p>I know it is customary, but why? Are there real technical reasons why any other way would be a really bad idea or is it just based on the history of encoding and backwards compatibility? In addition, what are the dangers of not using <code>UTF-8</code>, but some other encoding (most notably, <code>UTF-16</code>)? </p>
  
  <p>Edit : By interacting, I mostly mean the <code>shell</code> and <code>libc</code>. </p>