Sidelined?

Thu Apr 25 05:54:54 UTC 1996

On Wednesday, April 24, 1996 3:44 PM, Paul A Vixie[SMTP:paul at vix.com] wrote:
<snip>.
@However, the market speaks loudly and those of us who do not listen
@to it will find ourselves sidelined.  I've never been given permission
<snip>

I am not sure what you mean by sidelined.

As I see it, the Legacy Internet has years and years of life left in it. People
will be able to debate everything from how many angels can dance on the
head of a pin to whether or not angels exist and should all be given one
of the scarce IPv4 addresses. After that, more debates will focus on IPv6.

Just as the railroads were augmented by airlines, the Legacy Internet
will hopefully be surrounded by more modern designs that have the
luxury of building on the successful platform that you helped create.

In my opinion, these new designs will demand very little change to
the Legacy Internet and this will be good because changes to large
systems are always very difficult. New designs will bank on the
fact that changes will not likely occur and that people like yourself
will keep the "trains" operating long enough for others to get the
airlines flying.

Fortunately, we do not need clearance (permission) from the
railroads to fly over the tops of the trains moving slowly along
the tracks. Someday, air traffic control will be needed and I hope
that some of your technology is reused. I would hardly call this
being sidelined.

In the meantime, it does not make much sense to try to attach
wings to railroad cars. At best, all we can hope is that the railroads
will deliver lots of passengers to the air terminals. These passengers
will be searching for more efficient, faster and lower-cost transportation
solutions. They may not care if the plane has a V6 or a V8....:-)

--
Jim Fleming
UNETY Systems, Inc.
Naperville, IL 60563

e-mail: JimFleming at unety.net