[time-nuts] Linux time servers

[M. Warner Losh]

In message: <20090514223310.0D552BCE6 at ip-64-139-1-69.sjc.megapath.net>
            Hal Murray <hmurray at megapathdsl.net> writes:
: >>I'd try the FreeBSD distribution of Linux.
: > Ouch. In some circles, those are fightin' words.
: 
: I interpreted it as a joke, like telling a Windows user to install Service 
: Pack Linux.

Yes.  It is a joke.  One of the market share firms (netcraft?) had
this as one of the choices for a questions in ~1998 that went
something like:

	Which distribution of Linux do you run
		redhat
		suse
		debian
		freebsd

: If all you want is to run a time server, FreeBSD will do a better job than 
: Linux.  In particular, the Soekris boxes are polular.
: 
: If you have a Linux box that you need/use for other stuff, it can also run 
: ntpd.  That may or may not be good enough at timekeeping for a time-nut.

ntpd works on Linux, it just doesn't perform as well as FreeBSD.  But
the difference in performance typically is in the millisecond range or
10ms range (depending on the kernel version).  For most people, this
is more than good enough.  For subscribers to time-nuts... :)

Warner