Transcript

False meme image that says “bad news ipv4 fans. linus torvalds has announced removing ipv4 support from the linux kernel after the maintainers of the network stack got into a fight over WHAT KIND OF HRT gives the best results. this incident will impact 5 billion people and will make 95% of all network equipment on Earth binnable.” with fake screenshots of the linux kernel mailing list a girl calling another one a slur from 4chan over HRT choices and Linus Torvalds saying he will drop IPv4 support and asking the maintainers to learn to shut the fuck up.

Source: https://rivals.space/@deuxnise/115032302416832519

    • ulterno@programming.devEnglish
      3·
      1 day ago

      They give 2 options: “Sign the petition” and “Tweet them!”, but you could also just en-masse “Switch providers” and make them rethink their strategy.

    • Korhaka@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      91·
      2 days ago

      I still don’t have an IPv6 address over 4G with Vodafone. I want to run a web server on my phone, isn’t this a normal use case? Nat444 makes that pretty difficult, just let me use IPv6!

      • purplemonkeymad@programming.dev
        3·
        2 days ago

        Cabled from Vodafone is not much better, ip6 does auto configure from the router with a local address, so it at least supports it. but no routable ips yet.

        • Korhaka@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          3·
          2 days ago

          Actually on someone else’s network right now and think it’s cabled Vodafone and I do have IPv6. Only got android to play with right now though, apparently Vodafone are tight bastards for the range of addresses you can get.

          Edit: version of Android I am on only let’s you set a static IPv4 address, what a shit operating system

    • PieMePlenty@lemmy.world
      4·
      1 day ago

      I wonder if that site pings an IPv6 address on the virgin network and updates the output automatically based on the ping result.

    • Y|yukichigai@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      2·
      21 hours ago

      I’m on Spectrum in the US and their “support” is somehow worse than just not having IPv6. Tons of dropped packets, shifting IP address ranges, and overall a lot of headaches. Tried everything I could to sidestep the issues but there was nothing doing. Eventually I just disabled IPv6 and the issues went away. Maddening.

    • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
      1931·
      3 days ago

      I’m glad that Linus clarified that it was High Resolution Timers. I was honestly thinking they were arguing about Hormone Replacement Therapy.

    • lmmarsano@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
      13·
      3 days ago

      Thanks for the alt text & transcript in OP. It’s missing here, though.

      Transcript

      From: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
      To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
      Subject: [RFC] Remove IPv4 support from kernel, effective next merge window
      Date: Sat, 15 Aug 2025 10:42:00 -0700
      Message-ID: <20250815-drop-ipv4@linux-foundation.org>

      Hey folks,

      After yet another deeply technical and entirely calm discussion about HRT (High-Resolution Timers) that somehow devolved into 200+ replies, personal insults, and at least one GIF of a raccoon, I have decided it’s time to take drastic measures.

      Effective next merge window, we will be removing IPv4 support from the kernel. This will both (a) resolve the maintainers’ scheduling disputes, and (b) force the world into the IPV6 utopia we were promised back in 1998.

      If you need IPv4 after this point, you can either:

      • run an ancient kernel from before the change (good luck with the bugs), or
      • rewrite your applications to use IPv6 and learn to love colons in your addresses.

      Yes, I realize this will break roughly *everything *.
      No, I don’t care. I have already switched all my machines to IPv6-only, except for the toaster, which unfortunately still insists on using a 192. 168. x. x address. The toaster will be replaced.

      If you disagree with this decision, I suggest you take it up with the HRT maintainers. But please keep it civil this time. (Or at least keep the raccoon GIFs under 1MB.)

      - Linus

      • thedruid@lemmy.world
        41·
        3 days ago

        What a bunch of babies. They can’t work together so they make the world suffer.

        Got it

        Edit. I looked. It’s a joke. They got me. I’m leaving this to show my shame

          • Flipper@feddit.orgEnglish
            20·
            2 days ago

            There is the rule number one of the linux kernel: “We don’t break userspace.” Linux has refused fixes for buggy behavior in the past because of this rule. This would most certainly break userspace.

            Also the alt text of the original image states this is fake.

    • AppleStrudel@reddthat.comEnglish
      129·
      3 days ago

      Well I’m not going to switch away my perfectly functional mesh routers that uses IPv4 as using IPv6 on a local net that I may sometimes need to type in manually is rather stupid. And that would also bin my routers, so I’m not doing that either.

      Oh well, I guess it’s been fun guys, no more Linux for me due to potential future security issues.

        • AppleStrudel@reddthat.comEnglish
          82·
          3 days ago

          No. But if this is true (which I do doubt completely, Linus can’t be this dumb to singlehandedly cripple his OS), this should also affect every intranet address.

          The current description of IPv6 intranet is just ridiculously dumb anyway. Should I want to ssh into a local device, I’ll have to type in for example fd9e:9aa0:c00f:1::a, with only the fd part being the same for all intranets rather than 192.168.1.10 with 192.168 generally always being the same.

          Edit: wait… Are you telling me to set DNS redirects on all my local devices? Yeah, that’ll work, but why the even…

          • lengau@midwest.social
            13·
            3 days ago

            I don’t think I’ve entered an IP address for a local device in years. Everything is accessible using <hostname>.local thanks to mDNS. Avahi has been doing this for… 20 years I think?

            • AppleStrudel@reddthat.comEnglish
              3·
              3 days ago

              Cool. My mesh doesn’t have that though (I think?). But admittedly that’s a tangent. If IPv4 ever depreciates, I’ll have to toss my mesh anyway.

            • AppleStrudel@reddthat.comEnglish
              1·
              3 days ago

              Yeah, I really have put too much time into replying to all these based solely on a hypothetical. But I did learn something from all these comments (technical something, not me being an idiot), so it’s all good.

          • FauxLiving@lemmy.world
            9·
            3 days ago

            Pihole automatically adds clients that get an IP from its DHCP component. All my clients are server.local, client1.local, tv1.local, etc. So I can use their DNS name everywhere.

            Even if it don’t want to use pihole(why?), you can edit the SSH config and add addresses for each host so you can just type

            ssh server
          • anyhow2503@lemmy.world
            2·
            3 days ago

            wait… Are you telling me to set DNS redirects on all my local devices? Yeah, that’ll work, but why the even…

            What do you mean by that? I’m pretty sure people are telling you to run a DNS server and set up entries for any clients you want to regularly connect to.

            with only the fd part being the same for all intranets

            Why?

  • lightnegative@lemmy.world
    327·
    3 days ago

    Ipv4 is simpler and therefore easier for my brain to comprehend.

    I deliberately disable IPv6 on all the devices on my home network because it’s really f**n annoying when some service tries to bind to localhost but picks up the IPv6 localhost instead of the IPv4 one

    • Trainguyrom@reddthat.comEnglish
      604·
      3 days ago

      I’ve encountered way too many administrators and network admins who swear that “IPv6 does nothing but cause trouble” but the truth is, the trouble it’s causing is because you can’t half-implement IPv6. You either roll it out to the whole network or you don’t, and the longer you kick that can down the road the harder it’s going to be.

      Basically too many professionals who haven’t learned a new technology since 2005 and refuse to try new things keep holding the world back

      • anamethatisnt@sopuli.xyz
        122·
        3 days ago

        I think what those admins really mean to say is “We don’t need any of the benefits of IPv6, so IPv4 works just fine and making the large scale change is trouble.”, when you already got your DHCP, NAT, Firewall and stuff up and things do work as expected then you don’t really need NDP or SLAAC.

      • Korhaka@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        3·
        2 days ago

        Can’t even attempt to learn it if my ISP won’t provide addresses though.

        Not been able to use it to even try, but doesn’t IPv6 not have subnets at all? No 192.168.1.1 on your local network with a different public facing 85.136.52.142 (and with NAT444 you also have ISP facing 10.183.23.6). So does your ISP provide you a range of IPv6 addresses?

        • MissingGhost@lemmy.ml
          4·
          2 days ago

          Yes, your ISP provides you a large quantity of adresses. Not really, the adresses has several parts. Your ISP provides you with the prefix. Your devices complete the rest of the address automatically. You can also use a DHCPv6 server, but I don’t and some devices don’t support it anyway. Yes, all those adresses are globally routable, they are “Internet” adresses. You can still use locally routable adresses too if you want, called Unique local address (look it up on Wikipedia), but that requires manual configuration.

          • shoki@lemmy.world
            2·
            2 days ago

            I don’t think unique local addresses require manual configuration. On linux at least, I get an fe80:: address derived from the interface’s MAC address even if there it can’t find any router. If the host receives a router advertisement, it will add a local address (the same suffix as the fe80 but with a fd8b:something::/64) and the “internet” 2003::.

            I’m not an expert and this may be just the configuration of my router, but all my linux installs automatically got these three addresses without manual configuration or issues.

            • davad@lemmy.world
              1·
              2 days ago

              fe80::

              That’s a link local address [0].

              fd8b::

              That’s a ULA [1]

              2003::

              This one is a globally routable address (Global Unicast Address, or GUA) [2].

              As you observed, link-local addresses are generated completely independently. ULAs and GUAs are self-assigned using SLAAC or assigned by a server using DHCPv6 after your host has seen a router.

              For a GUA or ULA to be assigned, the router or DHCP server has to have a prefix delegated to it. A GUA prefix would come from your ISP. A ULA prefix would be configured on the router itself. If yours has one without you setting it up, maybe it does that by default?

              [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link-local_address [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unique_local_address [2] https://www.iana.org/assignments/ipv6-unicast-address-assignments/ipv6-unicast-address-assignments.xhtml

              • shoki@lemmy.world
                1·
                1 day ago

                Yeah, I guess my router just decided on an ULA prefix on its own. Thank you for providing the right terminology and explaining how a host gets these addresses.

            • MissingGhost@lemmy.ml
              1·
              1 day ago

              You are confusing unique local adresses and link local addresses. Unique local adresses can only be configured manually or, in theory, with DHCPv6. On Debian, I edit the file “/etc/network/interfaces.d/<interface name>”:

              • auto <interface name>
              • iface <interface name> inet dhcp
              • iface <interface name> inet6 static
              •     address <unique local adress of your choice within the official range>

              •     autoconf 1

              •     accept_ra 2

              •     privext

              This gives you: autoconfigured IPv4 address, autoconfigured (slaac) IPv6 address, an IPv6 unique local address, temporary IPv6 adresses (privacy extensions) and your IPv6 link local address.

        • Trainguyrom@reddthat.comEnglish
          2·
          2 days ago

          Correct, the ISP would assign you a /56 of public IPs that all share a prefix which you can slice and dice into however you see fit. All devices receive a publicly routable IP which your router/firewall would limit access to. So no running out of IPs ever, no network/IP collisions if you have to connect to another private network, etc.

      • vithigar@lemmy.ca
        141·
        2 days ago

        I will happily enable and use it once doing so doesn’t break any of my connectivity.

        I’m not managing an enterprise network, it’s just my home, but my ISP doesn’t support IPv6 so that’s one extra layer of complexity right off the hop. On top of that internal services switch which previously required no manual configuration just seem to randomly not work.

        IPv6 is not going to see widespread adoption unless it can be implemented completely transparently for the end user, full stop.

      • irish_link@lemmy.world
        101·
        3 days ago

        The issue for me is when I have it enabled and try to connect to a site that doesn’t support it fully (same thing / half assed) and the site doesn’t work properly. For home its my wife and kids that complain, when its the office then everyone complains. I get the blame for failed connections or things not working right when a fully compliant IPv6 site works just fine.

        Now I am not perfect so It could be me but I have read up and learned as much as possible. No expert but I did deploy DHCPv6 in a test environment. However there is no reason as of yet to deploy DHCPv6 locally since the address space is so wide. Just saying Its possible that the issue is me but from my understanding its like the U.S.A. switching to metric. Parts of us tried it but others didn’t and thus we failed as a giant group.

        I think there needs to be a big ass push and force everyone to switch as the same time. I know some of the old devices may not work however those devices have to be 20+ years by now.

      • splendoruranium@infosec.pubEnglish
        42·
        2 days ago

        Basically too many professionals who haven’t learned a new technology since 2005 and refuse to try new things keep holding the world back

        If it ain’t broke…

      • blackstrat@lemmy.fwgx.uk
        410·
        2 days ago

        “IPv4 is running out of IP addresses so therefore every local network needs to move to IPv6” is a full clown move.

        • Trainguyrom@reddthat.comEnglish
          3·
          2 days ago

          First of all, enterprises usually have at least one public IP (the one I work at right now has more public IPs than they have server VMs)

          Secondly enterprises have big enough and complex enough networks to see other benefits of IPv6. For example IPv4 has some problems when broadcast domains are too large, so your internal network sizes are artificially limited when following best practices. Without private networks you don’t have to worry about IP collisions between different private networks that you have to route between (comes up more than you’d think!) etc etc.

      • Honytawk@feddit.nl
        4·
        1 day ago

        Just remembering an address alone is much simpler.

        4 numbers > a combination of numbers and letters in 8 groups

    • Johanno@feddit.org
      71·
      2 days ago

      In a local network there is no point in using ipv6.

      It is interesting when you run out of ip addresses for the amount of devices you have.

      So in the open Internet.

      Unless I am missing something.

      • jj4211@lemmy.world
        3·
        2 days ago

        A couple of things that IPv6 does better for local networks is link local addressing (fe80::). and multicasting.

        In IPv4, they kind of hacked something out of 169.254, but if you have more than one NIC, it pretty much becomes useless.

        If you have a service designed explicitly never to be accessed over a router, then you can live in fe80:: a lot more easily than trying to do the same thing with 169.254.

        • Patches@ttrpg.network
          33·
          2 days ago

          If this was true then we would have swapped over by now.

          Most people still see NAT as a security system.

      • Possibly linux@lemmy.zipEnglish
        161·
        3 days ago

        Your ISP needs to setup IPv6 which isn’t trivial to do from scratch.

        What provider is it?

        • themadcodger@kbin.earth
          3·
          3 days ago

          Mine is Quantum Fiber, a sister of CenturyLink. CL has it, apparently QF doesn’t. Or at least not natively, rather 6rd. And then possibly not on the modem they installed? At any rate, I haven’t been able to find anything online.

          • Trainguyrom@reddthat.comEnglish
            2·
            3 days ago

            I’m on one of the regions of fiber that CenturyLink spun off to a private equity firm a few years ago. Zero IPv6 support here

            • themadcodger@kbin.earth
              1·
              2 days ago

              🤷🏼‍♂️ When I had CL I could turn it on by enabling 6rd and it worked as expected. When I moved across town and got QF, their instructions didn’t account for it and following the same online instructions for CL don’t work. Others online seem to not have had any luck either, but some people’s comments make it sound like it’s the modem.

  • CodexArcanum@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    579·
    3 days ago

    I’m kind of weirdly horny for Torvalds making unilateral decisions about long running controversies? Tell me what standards are best kernel daddy.

    Maybe next he can ban tabs and ‘\t’ from Linux? Everyone indents with spaces now, debate over.

  • B-TR3E@feddit.org
    341·
    3 days ago

    As a modest proposal, let’s just kill anyone who disagrees. These troglodytes had long enough time to get on speed with the world and human progress cannot further afford individuals unwilling to adapt.

    Renewal! Progress! Electrification!

  • chraebsli@programming.dev
    275·
    3 days ago

    ipv6 is great for public networks/ wan or extreme large nets. but for a small local net, ipv4 is so much easier if you need to access a single device. if ipv6 is parallell too, great but I hope ipv4 wont be disabled/ non existens in the future bc of this

  • Samsy@lemmy.ml
    112·
    3 days ago

    I had a bad start with ipv6. I moved to a new home and ISP switched my new network to ipv6 only (there is a strange ip4 backdoor in case its needed, but shared with others). And this destroyed my wireguard VPN. I called them and was so happy, that they gave everyone who explicit wants ipv4 got it.

    Nowadays wireguard support ipv6. Too bad, I never switched back to ipv6 only. But I setup all my DNS records with ip4 and ip6, if they kill ip4. I’m okay with it.