Comment 4 for bug 1278359

Regarding the choice between ntp and ntpdate, I suspect that ntpdate is a smaller package then ntp. Even if configurable as client, ntp still also is a server package. I do not know for sure but this might be the reason behind the use of ntpdate.

To raise the sync frequency to several times a day does not seem like a good Idea to me, nor does it really seem necessary as most systems will only suffer minor time fluctuations. If you or anyone needs to sync more often then once per network up I think you should use an individual configuration that applies to your needs.

The number of systems that will suffer major time differences is probably very small, even a raspberry pi which does not even have a hardware clock, keeps an acurate time for weeks.

Considering that most desktop systems will be booted once a day or every few days, this seems a good configuration as it is.

To solve this issue for more individual needs, it might be a good idea to create an option in the ntp (or ntpdate) configuration file, that defines to sync frequency. As far as I know this is not yet the case.