Changing default collation and charset to utf8_general adn utf8?

Hello all,

I am handling multi language Databases on mysql. So using the operating system ubuntu, which is UTF8 configured, does not fit with the mysql server which by default comes with collation=latin1_swedish_ci and charset=latin1.
The better fitting option for ubuntu would be collation=utf8_general_ci and charset=utf8.

So I would like to know, if it would be possible to change this odd default behaviour from latin to utf8? Ideally not only in ubuntu, but also on mysql server itself.

best regards,
Hans