Biggest mistake for IPv6: It's not backwards compatible, developers admit
Joe Abley
jabley at hopcount.ca
Mon Mar 30 18:27:31 CEST 2009
On 27-Mar-2009, at 22:21, Erik Kline wrote:
> I think also that the time for retrospection is not yet upon us.
> The IPv6 transition has recently been gaining steam.
I think it would be great if people could stop talking about the "IPv6
transition", and in doing so help spread the message that the IPv4
Internet is not going away any time soon. Common perception is that
IPv6 is a drop-in replacement for IPv4, hence incredulous news stories
such as that quoted at the head of this thread. Whatever was imagined
in the past, this is surely not the current operational reality.
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 think this is an important distinction. Transition implies that
people should wait "until IPv6 is ready" before "switching". Those
people will be waiting a long time.
Joe
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