Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

"Father Time" Gets Another Year At NTP From Linux Foundation

Posted by samzenpus on from the another-trip-around-the-sun dept.

dkatana writes: Harlan Stenn, Father Time to some and beleaguered maintainer of the Network Time Protocol (NTP) to others, will stay working for the NTP another year. But there is concern that support will decline as more people believe that NTP works just fine and doesn't need any supervision. NTP is the preeminent time synchronization system for Macs, Windows, and Linux computers and most servers on networks. According to IW, for the last three-and-a-half years, Stenn said he's worked 100-plus hours a week answering emails, accepting patches, rewriting patches to work across multiple operating systems, piecing together new releases, and administering the NTP mailing list. If NTP should get hacked or for some reason stop functioning, hundreds of thousands of systems would feel the consequences. "If that happened, all the critics would say, 'See, you can't trust open source code,'" said Stenn.

1 of 157 comments (clear)

  1. If NTP should get hacked... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "If NTP should get hacked or for some reason stop functioning, hundreds of thousands of systems would feel the consequences."

    Hah! Anyone attend DefCon23 last weekend? I am going to assume somebody did because it was awfully crowded at the old Paris Hotel, Las Vegas.

    https://defcon.org/html/defcon-23/dc-23-speakers.html#Selvi