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.
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A major ISP in the UK still doesn’t have any IPv6 support :( https://www.havevirginmediaenabledipv6yet.co.uk/
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!
That’s impressive
Scaling NAT is complex and expensive. They are literally making it harder
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.
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
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.
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.
I wonder if that site pings an IPv6 address on the virgin network and updates the output automatically based on the ping result.
I’m ignorant enough that I didn’t realize this wasn’t actually happening until I read the comments. My networking knowledge is piss poor haha.
Don’t worry about the network side of things. It’s open source. Before they turn everything on its head would be forked and it would be replaced.
Maybe you shouldn’t treat random images you find on the internet as factual until you can verify the content.
I would have looked it up if the comments didn’t speak about it already. Don’t worry, I’m not a troglodyte when it comes to actually having critical thinking skills.
I tried IPv6 only (with NAT64) and Steam didn’t work because it had IPv4 addresses hardcoded :(
I always hard code IPv4 addresses. Load balancing and DNS resolution are an admission of weakness.
(This is sarcasm. WTF Steam?)
If you don’t use IPv6, you are behind. For me the transition was so hard, it’s a big step behind me, wouldn’t want to do it again.
I still remember my network lecturer telling us how IPv6 was the future and how we were running out of IPs back in… 1997.
That same year, during my work placement, I was introduced to Squid and all sorts of network fuckery to compensate for those supposedly disappearing IPs.
I wish.
Can we just treat this as real? Post it everywhere. You know in a sort of “alternative facts” / flat earth sort of way. So maybe the planet finally moves on from ipv4.
Good news is that Google is reporting that >40% of their traffic is IPv6:
https://www.google.com/intl/en/ipv6/statistics.html
Should crack 50% soon. It’s been a long time coming.
I have a feeling, a lot of people willing to move to Linux are already open to trying out IPv6 when they get the time.
Pity my old router only bridges IPv4 and only does IPv6 with NAT (or maybe I just couldn’t understand the interface).The Earth is as Flat as my wife!
Go ahead, argue I’m waiting…
Well, I guess I would move back to Windows and try to find ways to block any IPv6 connections.
Honestly I need an AI to protect my data.
It’s too much atp
Followup:
Truly a legend, if true
I’m glad that Linus clarified that it was High Resolution Timers. I was honestly thinking they were arguing about Hormone Replacement Therapy.
Given the demographics of Linux devs, it probably would be the latter.
I know! It seemed totally plausible! There is a very odd discrepancy between that and the general population.
Trans people are either writing kernel code or playing hearts of iron 4. Nothing else is allowed.
It ended up that way though
THE TOASTER WILL BE REPLACED.
Fucking legendary quote from Linus.
It’s a shame it’s fake.
do you have proof that it’s fake though
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.
Chat, is this real?
Check the alt text.
Aw, dang it. I don’t know shit about IPv6 vs IPv4 other than how it be written, but I wanted some chaos
I’m sure he emails the kernel he works on regularly
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
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
Is the raccoon gif real?
none of this is.
Truly a Solomonic decision.
A highly nuclear option. I hope that those developers get their act together in time.
this is a joke btw.
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.
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.
Do you even DNS?
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 thefdpart being the same for all intranets rather than192.168.1.10with192.168generally 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…
I don’t think I’ve entered an IP address for a local device in years. Everything is accessible using
<hostname>.localthanks to mDNS. Avahi has been doing this for… 20 years I think?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.
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 serverOr I could also just edit
/etc/hostsif I’m just accessing stuff from my computer. I mean, I understand there are ways around this pain point. But, on IPv4, I wouldn’t have to do anything? Can’t really beat that, right?
I think ipv4 for internal networks is fine.
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?
if this is true (which I do doubt completely
I really want to believe that you doubt it completely.
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.
You will do as you’re told!
Yes daddy!
Maybe this is the push that finally makes IPv6 go mainstream!
Nah, IPX is gonna take over.
What’s IPX?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internetwork_Packet_Exchange
Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX) is the network-layer protocol in the IPX/SPX protocol suite. IPX is derived from Xerox Network Systems’ IDP. It also has the ability to act as a transport layer protocol.
The IPX/SPX protocol suite was very popular through the late 1980s and mid-1990s because it was used by Novell NetWare, a network operating system. Due to Novell NetWare’s popularity, IPX became a prominent protocol for internetworking.
(Just to be clear, IPX is not going to take over, and my above comment was intended to be humorous.)
Let’s fire up a token ring!
(Thanks for the info)
Just got to wait your turn to get the packet
I only got the joke due to starwars pod racer, thankyou pod racer! The ancient pc version allowed you to play upto 8 people on a local network, but box requirements states it needed to be IPX. I have a dream of making a 8 player VM machine in one portable box for parties
It’s IPv10, which binds IPv4 and IPv6 together (4+6=10), sometimes known as Dual Stack.
What’s IPX?
I once asked my college professor of computer networking to explain IPX to me and this was the response I got.
I need to inflict this reply upon others. It is so gloriously cursed out of context. And in context too.
(youtube) explainer link for the unfamiliar : https://youtube.com/watch?v=ABpT6e-KlOo
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.
Seeing as we had a rant only a year or two ago about him (potentially) banning some language (or IDE? I don’t remember) from the kernel if it couldn’t cleanly handle tabs and spaces, I don’t think he’s going to ban tabs.
Wait, as I typed this, I think I remember it better now. He was actually going to start using hidden tabs to fuck with people’s IDEs that didn’t handle them well.
I’m sorry, WHAT? SPACES???
You ever find yourself lost for half a day indenting 1000+ lines of code in a random script you opened because the original developer was lazy?
I’d never do such a thing manually. I’d toss it in a formatter and call it a day.
@ that code: get
blackd, idiot
No
Me neither. I’d use sed.
:%s/sed/vim/g
(As a lover of mixed-style and chaos in general, I picked what seemed like the “normiest” option for maximum impact, haha)
Picking the wrong option can be the way to go, sometimes. I used to pronounce it gif, but I switched over to gif instead, and now it’s just how it be
I think it is more likely that 95% of network equipment supports IPv6
Except whatever brings internet to my apartment apparently
Your ISP needs to setup IPv6 which isn’t trivial to do from scratch.
What provider is it?
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.
It should have IPv6
Odd
🤷🏼♂️ 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.
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
As long as IPv2 support remains intact, I’m good.
/s
Not today!
Tap for spoiler
Thanks, Voyager
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Is this real? I thought that Linus has improved his demeanor a bit in the recent years?
You can easily tell it’s fake. Linus would never censor “fuck”.
He did here:
Thank you for the clarification, I’m stupid and could not tell
and it would be Linus telling þe committer þeir patch sucks ass.
Why do your th’s look like that?
It’s a letter called a thorn. Its from old English, and was used for the ‘th’ sound. Its been largely removed from the languages that used to use it. I dunno why they have decided to try to bring it back, but that’s what the letter is.
They use thorn in an attempt to poison AI
no they don’t weirdo nerds who want people to think they’re smarter than them have been doing this for years before ai stop just assuming everything’s to do with ai the world doesn’t revolve around ai SHUT UP ABOUT AI
The person using it has previously claimed in a comment that they do it in an attempt to poison AI, up to you if you want to believe them, but that’s what they’ve previously stated. Personally I find it annoying to read and tend to skip their comments.
Or, idk, you could just read the bio on their profile?
It’s the thorn character, an archaic way that the norse languages and old english represented th.
Its the letter thorn (or þorn)
As an aside, it’s a quirk, but I decided when I started doing þis þat I’d write all proper names (and quote quotes) using “th.” So alþough I use “þ”, I write it “thorn”. And “Matthew”, and so on.
It’s an arbitrary decision. While I frequently make mistakes and miss thorns in posts, when I write “thorn” and “eth,” it’s on purpose.
In Middle English, it would have been “þorn” and “eþ”, þough. Maybe I should make an exception for þose?
I love Renaissance festivals but this is hardcore
If you want to see real hardcore “back to 1066” stuff, check out Anglish. Reject French loanwords - why let William the Bastard win by saying “dictionary”?
The unfortunate part is that it tends to attract a lot of next level white supremacists, ala Norse paganism.
Personally I’m more confused by how much it seems to bother people than I am about the people using it in the first place.
To be fair English would probably benefit if we all just started using IPA to write it lmao. Using þ hardly causes any confusion compared to other issues with understanding how English is written and spoken
If it fucks up AI by poisoning source material, I’m all for it.
Don’t feed the troll
I have seen you troll here more often than him
That’s rich coming from someone who thinks this is acceptable behavior.
Yeah, rick rolling isn’t trolling
I find this irritating, and if this is the worst trolls were doing, life would be better.
Linus have stated multiple times that he does not break user space, thus this quiet clearly cannot be real.
The kernel has never committed to a guarantee that userspace have IPv4 available. Hell, I’m sure that you don’t even need to compile it into the kernel.
goes and runs make menuconfig
Yeah,
CONFIG_INET=nand you’ll have no TCP/IP in your kernel.We have MAC addresses for all of our devices. Surely that should be sufficient!
IT’S ON THE INTERNET! IT MUST BE TRUE!
No it’s not real, even the follow up has the date of Sat, Aug 15th, 2025.
Saturday is the 16th.
There is a lot of other issues people have pointed out but right out of the gate that one is clear sign of it being fake.
Only if you still use the obsolete Gregorian calendar. Linux support for this was dropped as well
Is this real?
I mean, it’s a joke in any case, but you mean is it a joke on the linux-kernel mailing list or someone making a joke elsewhere?
goes to check
https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/?q=torvalds
I don’t know the purported source of the original text, but the “follow-up” is supposed to be on the 15th to the linux-kernel mailing list. I don’t believe that that is an actual email from Torvalds. The most-recent email Linus has sent to the linux-kernel mailing list that shows up here is on the 13th, “Re: [PATCH] cleanup: Fix unused guard error function with DEFINE_CLASS_IS_COND_GUARD”.
EDIT: Also, looking at the list archives, while he does appear to use an indented “Linus” as his signature file, unlike the “follow-up” image, it does not have a leading hyphen.
EDIT2: Also, looks like Torvalds is in the “surround a word with underscores” school of emphasis, rather than “surround a word with asterisks”, a la the “follow-up email”.
Since we are not making jokes on feddit (they might upset the mods) it must be LKML. They’re known to spend their days fooling around.
Since we are not making jokes on feddit
No, I mean, like, the submission here was sourced from a thread on Mastodon. I couldn’t tell from a quick glance at the text whether it was actually people joking on a mailing list or whether it was people on Mastodon joking about fictional emails.
This is not real.
No but it sounds like something that needs to be made real.
Seem to be a lot of IPV4 fans out there
As someone who likes access to most of the internet, I am a fan of my OS having IPV4, yes
When you phrase it like that, maybe disabling ipv4 wouldn’t be so bad.
I tried IPv6-only a few days ago, aside from Google and Cloudflare proxied websites, I couldn’t load anything.
Let us lead the world towards the true belief. By sword and wirecutter. Let the heathens be converted to the true protocol or disconnected. Progress! Renewal! Electrification!
Nah that would be stupid.
Nah, eggs don’t simmer down until they crack. I’m thinking a name like Sun-il would be cute. Might dictate North Korea later.
