NTP keeps in touch with time servers like time.nist.gov on more or less a constant basis, it uses the data it gets back to not only set your clock, but fine-tune it so it runs at the right speed. Rather than running every day or so it stays connected as much as possible. It runs as a service, not a cron-job.
But it is more complex to setup and configure. At least that is what I have heard. rdate is simple, just install it, set up a daily or twice daily rdate cron job, and you have it. I have not tried ntpd, though as I said, I have heard it is harder to set up.
Wow, how hard is selecting "update time from network server" during your redhat install?
No, ntpd is cake to configure, the only line in my /etc/ntp.conf that wasn't in the sample config file is "server time.nist.gov".
I guess if you want to do something complicated (what, I'm not sure) then it could be worse.
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