Biggest mistake for IPv6: It's not backwards compatible, developers admit

[Fred Baker]

On Mar 30, 2009, at 9:27 AM, Joe Abley wrote:

> What is required is not for people (service architects, content  
> providers, access providers, users) to turn off IPv4 and turn on  
> IPv6, but instead to add IPv6 capability *in addition to* IPv4. If  
> IPv6 has a future in our lifetimes (and I think it does) it is in an  
> overwhelmingly dual-stack world, not a world of v6-only clients.

I agree with you, with one exceptional point. At some point, IPv6  
deployment will be widespread enough that most people are running it.  
If that does not eventually become true, we never had a real problem  
in the first place - and I will argue that the only reason that IPv6  
is at all an issue is that there is a problem. At the point where most  
folks have deployed IPv6, just as happened with DECNET, IPX, and  
others, IPv4 will become non-essential.