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

          • Flipper@feddit.orgEnglish
            9·
            9 hours 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.

    • JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
      1701·
      1 day 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·
      1 day 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
        2·
        16 hours 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

        • Treczoks@lemmy.world
          1·
          8 minutes ago

          I noticed. But sometimes, LT can be a bit explosive, and we all know that devs can be bitches about their code. I would not put it past Linus that he actally threatens some fully nuclear option to bring some boneheads to reason.

    • AppleStrudel@reddthat.comEnglish
      118·
      1 day 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
          72·
          24 hours 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·
            22 hours 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·
              22 hours 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.

          • FauxLiving@lemmy.world
            9·
            23 hours 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·
            18 hours 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?

            • AppleStrudel@reddthat.comEnglish
              1·
              22 hours 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.