alt Hacker News> but it's always getting updated,
I entirely disagree. Due to a combination of ISPs sticking with what they know and refusing to update (because of the huge time/cost in validating it), and vendors minimising their workloads/risk exposure and only updating what they "have to". The vendors have a lot of power here and these big new protocols are just more work.
In addition, smaller ISPs have virtually no say in what software/features they get. They can ask all they want, they have little power. It takes a big customer to move the needle and get new features into these expensive boxes. It really only happens when there's another vendor offering something new, and therefore a business requirement to maintain feature parity else lose big-customer revenue. So yeh, if a new protocol magically becomes standard, only then would anyone bother implementing and supporting it.
I think it's much easier to update consumer edge equipment. The ISP dictates all aspects of this relationship, the boxes are cheap, and just plug and play. They're relatively simple and easy to validate for 99% of usecases. If your internet stops working (because you didn't get the new hw/sw), they ship you a replacement, 2 days later it's fixed.
But I will just say, and slightly off topic of this thread, the lack of multiple extension headers in this proposed protocol instantly makes it more attractive to implement compared to v6.
> I entirely disagree. Due to a combination of ISPs sticking with what they know and refusing to update... and vendors minimising their workloads/risk exposure and only updating what they "have to"...
You misunderstand me, though the misunderstanding is quite understandable given how I phrased some of the things.
I expect the updating usually occurs when buying new kit, rather than on kit that's deployed... and that that purchasing happens regularly, but infrequently. I'm a very, very big proponent of "If it's working fine, don't update its software load unless it fixes a security issue that's actually a concern.". New software often brings new trouble, and that's why cautious folks do extensive validation of new software.
My commentary presupposed that
which I'd say counts as something that a vendor "has to" implement.> I think it's much easier to update consumer edge equipment. The ISP dictates all aspects of this relationship...
I expect enough people don't use the ISP-rented equipment that it's -in aggregate- actually not much easier to update edge equipment. That's what I was trying to get at with talking about "ISP-provided routers & etc are crap and not worth the expense".