transcript

A fake email. It reads: 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
  • Scoopta@programming.dev
    44·
    13 hours ago

    Honestly, I get this is a joke…but it unironically wouldn’t impact me, I run single stack v6, so let’s do it. I’ll grab some popcorn

    • nucleative@lemmy.worldEnglish
      14·
      11 hours ago

      Isn’t like 50% of the internet broken for you if you’re only running IPv6? It seems like so many websites , especially small ones, still aren’t setting up v6 addresses

      • Scoopta@programming.dev
        19·
        11 hours ago

        Small ones are actually often better than big ones. I have a love hate relationship with cloudflare, they contribute to internet centralization but it IPv6 enables so many sites transparently and they only let you turn it off if you’re an enterprise customer. So some guy using free cloudflare has IPv6 but not discord, ironic. That being said I have NAT64+DNS64 which lets me access the remaining legacy v4 services without having v4 on my network or devices. Although according to my firewall stats over 90% of my traffic is v6 native, the remainder is NAT64. Honestly the only services I use on a regular basis which don’t work if I disable NAT64, discord, steam, and my bank. Everything else I use is v6 native, YT, Crunchyroll, lemmy (this instance), even steam downloads (just not login ironically).

        • moonshadow@slrpnk.net
          3·
          9 hours ago

          I tried to do this but am too old, too dumb, or a little bit of both. Shine on my dude, if there’s any resources you found particularly helpful I’d love to see them. Got as far as getting an address from my isp but couldn’t even ping it x(

      • vividspecter@aussie.zone
        3·
        11 hours ago

        NetworkManager now has a CLAT and you can install clatd if not using nm.

        But Linux is a bit behind on this tbh, especially compared to MacOS/iOS and Android (to a lesser extent) which have had mature clat support for years.