diff --git a/.github/workflows/e2e.yaml b/.github/workflows/e2e.yaml
index 75a9888488..8ce3ea0f6a 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/e2e.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/e2e.yaml
@@ -50,7 +50,7 @@ jobs:
 
         # Build and run the test/ binary, which should log "Hello there" served from KO_DATA_PATH
         testimg=$(go run ./ build ./test --platform=${PLATFORM} --preserve-import-paths)
-        docker run ${testimg} --wait=false 2>&1 | grep "Hello there"
+        docker run ${testimg} --wait=false 2>&1 | tee >(grep "Hello there") # Log all output too.
 
         # Check that symlinks in kodata are chased.
         # Skip this test on Windows.
diff --git a/pkg/commands/options/build.go b/pkg/commands/options/build.go
index 799eebd5b2..c0331cebb6 100644
--- a/pkg/commands/options/build.go
+++ b/pkg/commands/options/build.go
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ import (
 
 const (
 	// configDefaultBaseImage is the default base image if not specified in .ko.yaml.
-	configDefaultBaseImage = "gcr.io/distroless/static:nonroot"
+	configDefaultBaseImage = "ghcr.io/distroless/static:latest"
 )
 
 // BuildOptions represents options for the ko builder.
diff --git a/pkg/commands/options/build_test.go b/pkg/commands/options/build_test.go
index 1f066cb6e3..60d4ac46a1 100644
--- a/pkg/commands/options/build_test.go
+++ b/pkg/commands/options/build_test.go
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ func TestDefaultBaseImage(t *testing.T) {
 		t.Fatal(err)
 	}
 
-	wantDefaultBaseImage := "gcr.io/distroless/base:nonroot" // matches value in ./testdata/.ko.yaml
+	wantDefaultBaseImage := "alpine" // matches value in ./testdata/config/.ko.yaml
 	if bo.BaseImage != wantDefaultBaseImage {
 		t.Fatalf("wanted BaseImage %s, got %s", wantDefaultBaseImage, bo.BaseImage)
 	}
diff --git a/pkg/commands/options/testdata/config/.ko.yaml b/pkg/commands/options/testdata/config/.ko.yaml
index cac68c85a4..b65d481c4a 100644
--- a/pkg/commands/options/testdata/config/.ko.yaml
+++ b/pkg/commands/options/testdata/config/.ko.yaml
@@ -1 +1 @@
-defaultBaseImage: gcr.io/distroless/base:nonroot
+defaultBaseImage: alpine
diff --git a/test/main.go b/test/main.go
index b177f47f89..af9ffe5c30 100644
--- a/test/main.go
+++ b/test/main.go
@@ -16,12 +16,15 @@ package main
 
 import (
 	"flag"
+	"fmt"
 	"io/ioutil"
 	"log"
 	"os"
 	"os/signal"
 	"path/filepath"
+	"runtime"
 	"syscall"
+	"time"
 
 	// Give this an interesting import
 	_ "github.com/google/go-containerregistry/pkg/registry"
@@ -40,6 +43,24 @@ func main() {
 
 	log.Println("version =", version)
 
+	if runtime.GOOS == "windows" {
+		// Go seems to not load location data from Windows, so timezone
+		// conversion fails unless tzdata is embedded in the Go program
+		// with the go build tag `timetzdata`. Since we want to test
+		// loading tzdata provided by the base image below, we'll just
+		// skip that for Windows here.
+		// See https://github.com/google/ko/issues/739
+		log.Println("skipping timezone conversion on Windows")
+	} else {
+		// Exercise timezone conversions, which demonstrates tzdata is provided
+		// by the base image.
+		now := time.Now()
+		loc, _ := time.LoadLocation("UTC")
+		fmt.Printf("UTC Time: %s\n", now.In(loc))
+		loc, _ = time.LoadLocation("America/New_York")
+		fmt.Printf("New York Time: %s\n", now.In(loc))
+	}
+
 	dp := os.Getenv("KO_DATA_PATH")
 	file := filepath.Join(dp, *f)
 	bytes, err := ioutil.ReadFile(file)