Canonical wants ntpd-rs, a Rust rewrite of NTP (Network Time Protocol), to become Ubuntu’s default time sync client.
To help get there, Canonical has become a Gold Sponsor of the Trifecta Tech Foundation, the non-profit behind ntpd-rs, committing €40,000 a year to help fund its memory-safe software projects.
The goal is to make the Rust-based version the default time sync client and server in Ubuntu 27.04, and it will be made it available for testing in Ubuntu 26.10, out in October.
Eventually, it’ll also replace chrony, linuxptp and gpsd for time-syncing use cases, according to Jon Seager, Ubuntu VP of Engineering at Canonical.
Your Ubuntu system keeps its clock right by checking in with time servers over the internet. This is done using NTP (Network Time Protocol). This won’t change that; the aim is to still keep time in sync1.
Ubuntu last tweaked its time sync stack in 25.10, replacing systemd-timesyncd with Chrony and adding Network Time Security (NTS) to authenticate time servers – changes done to improve the distro’s overall security.
The planned switch to ntpd-rs is for similar reasons, albeit replacing the daemon itself rather than adding layers on top. Rust is famed – some say overhyped – for its memory safety.
Trifecta Tech Foundation chair, Erik Jonkers, said the funding will help the foundation ensure the long-term security and reliability of various projects in its memory-safe stable, including further work needed to improve ntpd-rs and associated pieces, like AppArmor rules.
Canonical has an ongoing relationship with the foundation already, having co-sponsored development of sudo-rs. Ubuntu 25.10 adopted this Rust-based sudo replacement as system default, which carried over to Ubuntu 26.04 LTS release in April.
Seager adds that Canonical is “excited to deepen our already productive relationship with the Trifecta Tech Foundation to make these transitions viable for the wider ecosystem”.
This is all part of Ubuntu’s wider embrace of Rust and ‘oxidising’ the distro.
Like the sudo switch last year, a time sync change will go unnoticed in day-to-day usage. But for Canonical, the inherent stability and security benefits on offer – however overstated some feel they are – is worth the effort and, in helping pay for the work needed, the expense too.
- A bit like calling the speaking clock, not that most of you reading are old enough to remember doing that… ↩︎