Re: [heads up] axing AppleTalk and IPX/SPX

From: Julian Elischer <julian_at_freebsd.org>
Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2013 23:28:07 +0800
On 10/28/13 8:42 PM, Gleb Smirnoff wrote:
>    Hello!
>
>    [Cc to stable_at_, for wider audience]
>
>    The plan is two axe two old networking protocols from FreeBSD head/,
> meaning that FreeBSD 11.0-RELEASE, available in couple of years would
> be shipped without them.
>
> 1) AppleTalk
>
>     Last time claimed to be supported by vendor in 2007[1]. In practice
>     had very little use since 90th.
>     Discontinued by major routing equipment vendors since 2009[2].
I did a lot of work on this to get it going in the 90s but
really it's only current value is as an example of a non-IP protocol.

(and the same for IPX, which was what Novell used to use I believe.)
I'd be pretty amazed to discover anyone still used either.
ok I did see someone talking about IPX a while back but, really
it should probably go.. the timeframe is good.. "shoot in 11"  :-)
> 2) IPX
>
>     Last time claimed to be supported by vendor in 2007[3]. In practice
>     had very little use since 90th.
>     Discontinued by major routing equipment vendors since 2011[4].
>
> Current status of these protocols in FreeBSD is "compilable". For the
> next couple of years, we plan a lot of changes in networking stack,
> many of which will require changing the protocols, as well. Keeping
> them in compilable state would require additional manpower, but it
> is very probable, that after all the changes they will be utterly
> broken, albeit compilable.
>
> P.S. I account any objector as taker of maintainership :)
>
> [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X_v10.5
>      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_OS_X_v10.6
> [2] http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/iosswrel/ps8802/ps5460/product_bulletin_c25-520459.html
> [3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Enterprise_Server#OES-NetWare
> [4] http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/ios/novipx/configuration/guide/Novell_IPX_Discontinuation.html
>
Received on Mon Oct 28 2013 - 14:28:17 UTC

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