Which character set has replaced ASCII as the default character set used in U.S. Linux installations?

The character set that has replaced ASCII as the default character set used in U.S. Linux installations is UTF-8. This is due to UTF-8's ability to represent a vast range of characters from various languages and symbols, making it far more versatile than ASCII, which is limited to 128 characters.

UTF-8 is designed to be backward compatible with ASCII; the first 128 character codes in UTF-8 correspond directly to ASCII. This ensures that any text files written in ASCII will remain valid in UTF-8 as well. Additionally, UTF-8 can encode characters using one to four bytes, accommodating not just the English alphabet but also characters from different languages and various special symbols. This flexibility is essential in today's globalized and interconnected digital environment where software applications are used across multiple languages.

The other character sets mentioned, while significant in their own contexts, do not serve the same broad purpose as UTF-8. Latin-1, for example, expands on ASCII but is still limited when it comes to representing texts with a more diverse range of characters. ASCII itself has been largely replaced due to its limitations, and UTF-16, though capable of representing a large character set, is not as commonly used in environments where space efficiency and compatibility