> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://itsfoss.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Canonical Puts €40,000 a Year Behind Trifecta Tech to Rustify Ubuntu - URL: https://itsfoss.com/news/ubuntu-ntpd-rs-push/ - Published: 2026-07-07T05:04:58.000Z - Updated: 2026-07-07T05:04:58.000Z - Description: ntpd-rs is set to replace Ubuntu's time-syncing tools, the same way sudo-rs replaced classic sudo last year. - Author: Sourav Rudra - Tags: News Canonical is now [a Gold Sponsor](https://ubuntu.com/blog/canonical-becomes-gold-sponsor-of-trifecta-tech-foundation?ref=itsfoss.com) of the [Trifecta Tech Foundation](https://trifectatech.org/?ref=itsfoss.com), a non-profit focused on keeping critical infrastructure software memory-safe. The new backing comes with **a yearly €40,000 contribution**, meant to fund continued work on memory-safe system utilities written in [Rust](https://www.rust-lang.org/?ref=itsfoss.com). Trifecta Tech Foundation operates projects across three areas: *data compression*, *time synchronization*, and *privilege boundaries*. [sudo-rs](https://github.com/trifectatechfoundation/sudo-rs?ref=itsfoss.com) is its best-known output so far, but the foundation also works on zlib-rs and several other Rust rewrites most Linux users never think about. Don't think that Canonical just started contributing to the foundation; it has been a backer since 2025, co-sponsoring the development of sudo-rs, and as you already know, that collaboration paid off. It became Ubuntu's [default privilege escalation tool](https://itsfoss.com/news/ubuntu-25-10-sudo-rs/) in 25.10 and carried over into 26.04 LTS a few months later. The sponsorship is a bigger step in the same direction, part of what Canonical once called an effort to go *"carefully but purposefully oxidising Ubuntu*." *Coreutils*, *findutils*, *diffutils*, and *sudo* have already been swapped for Rust alternatives. That leaves time synchronization as the next frontier. The current phase of their partnership is moving to [ntpd-rs](https://trifectatech.org/projects/ntpd-rs/?ref=itsfoss.com), the Rust rewrite that Canonical wants to make Ubuntu's default time synchronization client and server. ## What do Ubuntu users get out of this? ![a cropped snippet of the ntpd-rs webpage hosted on trifecta tech foundation's website with some informational text](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2026/07/ntpd-rs-webpage-cropped.png) Fewer memory-safety bugs in a piece of software every Ubuntu install relies on to keep its clock, and by extension its TLS certificates, in sync with the rest of the internet. **ntpd-rs isn't an untested experiment either**. Jon Seager, the VP of Engineering at Canonical, [points out that](https://jnsgr.uk/2026/03/ntpd-rs-its-about-time/?ref=itsfoss.com) it has already been running in production at Let's Encrypt since June 2024, following a staging rollout that started two months earlier. Trifecta is also developing [Statime](https://trifectatech.org/projects/statime/?ref=itsfoss.com), a memory-safe implementation of the [Precision Time Protocol](https://www.linuxptp.org/?ref=itsfoss.com) (PTP), with a plan to build its capabilities directly into ntpd-rs. Canonical's funding also covers feature-parity work. That includes GPSd IP socket support, multi-threading for NTP servers, and support for multi-homed server setups, closing gaps that currently exist between ntpd-rs and [chrony](https://chrony-project.org/?ref=itsfoss.com). For more specialized deployments, the funding also covers **gPTP support**, useful for automotive and connected vehicle use cases, along with **experimental support for the proposed Client-Server PTP protocol**. Security is an area of focus too, with work being done to build AppArmor and seccomp profiles for ntpd-rs, matching the isolation chrony already gets. Along with support for [rustls](https://github.com/rustls/rustls?ref=itsfoss.com) to fall back on [OpenSSL](https://www.openssl.org/?ref=itsfoss.com) as a crypto provider for organizations with strict compliance policies. ## When to expect? **Canonical is targeting Ubuntu 26.10 as the first real milestone**, including `ntpd-rs` in the archive so people can start testing it. Followed by the bigger goal of introducing ntpd-rs as the default time synchronization tool for Ubuntu in the 27.04 release next year. For you as a regular desktop user, not much will change; this looks to be focused more on sysadmins than anyone else. --- **Suggested Read 📖:** [*sudo vs. sudo-rs, Which One is For You?*](https://itsfoss.com/sudo-vs-sudo-rs/) [sudo vs sudo-rs: What You Need to Knowsudo-rs is poised to take over. Here’s what you should know about sudo-rs as a sudo user.![](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/icon/android-chrome-512x512-96f751c7-d2cf-4d11-af8f-3f5efba313ed.png)It's FOSSAbhishek Prakash![](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/thumbnail/sudo-rs-c13c8c93-4fc6-40ce-b56d-5b427dc81108.png)](https://itsfoss.com/sudo-vs-sudo-rs/)