Well, to configure ntpd as a basic client, the general workflow is the natural workflow of any daemon launched by init. 1) Install the package 2) Modify the c

Well, to configure ntpd as a basic client, the general workflow is the natural workflow of any daemon launched by init. 1) Install the package 2) Modify the configuration file if needed 3) Enable the service Taken alone timesyncd can be considered simpler to configure (no package to install, short configuration file), but it follows its own workflow, specially the command to enable or disable it (timedatectl set-ntp true), and to a lesser extent the location of its configuration file. For me it makes it harder to configure because, now, I must remember precisely all the steps where I could only remember a loss pattern, common with all other services, for ntpd. As itself, it's not that bad, it's a few commands, I can remember them, but it would definitely suck if every single service had its own pattern.