Messages in this thread |  | | From | (Alan Cox) | Subject | Re: IPv6 and the "average user" | Date | Wed, 20 Nov 1996 20:07:47 +0000 (GMT) |
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> This is one of those "you will convert or die" things, and because of > the ominousness of that, the designers have made IPv6 as *comfortable* > as possible for the conversion process. It specifically designs > compatibility with IPv4 into its workings so that the two can happily > coexist for some time to come. This leeway is intended to last so > long that no one will even get bruised during the process.
People will get bruised, but hopefully not too badly. We have to have IPv6 because
o There are not enough IPv4 addresses. Just to put all the cable TV customers in the USA on couldnt be done. Abortions like dynamic IP are directly due to this
o The existing scheme doesnt allow enough empty address space to make routing easier. Without that the peering points will simply melt in a few years time, regardless of how much money is thrown at the problem.
There are lots of other potentially great things to come out of IPv6 but the impact to the average net.human is likely to be one day that their ISP says "Ok we now do IPv6", and if your PPP client can do IPv6 you'll be able to talk to all the IPv6 sites too. Over time things will appear that are v6 only until a lot of the net isnt useful via IPv4. People will stick IPv4 only boxes behind v4/v6 masquerades or upgrade. That may finally mean the death of win3.11 and sunos (pre solaris sunos)
Alan
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