Re: [arch-d] I-D Action: draft-iab-protocol-maintenance-08.txt

[Vittorio Bertola <[e-mail]>]

> Il 14/07/2022 04:15 Bernard Aboba <[e-mail]> ha scritto:
> 
> 
> My view is that keeping the Internet running is job #1.  I do think we are moving to a world where maintenance cycles are compressed and we can push out fixes for vulnerabilities on much shorter time frames. 
> 
I think that this really depends on the specific case. Of course, when we discuss about protocols that are generally implemented in software, perhaps in environments in which there are few implementations or some are big enough to be able to push everybody else to align with their choices "or else", then changes can happen quickly. But if we talk about hardware, or if we get back to the original scenario of a very high number of smaller independent implementations and deployments, then any change can take a lot of time.

In the end, the robustness principle is a democratizing factor - it ensures that people who cannot afford to implement or deploy updates very quickly, or do not have highly skilled personnel to implement things right at the first attempt, can still stay on the network and communicate, while taking their time to learn about the problems and fix their stuff. If we remove it, we add another push for centralization.

-- 

Vittorio Bertola | Head of Policy & Innovation, Open-Xchange
[e-mail] mailto:[e-mail]
Office @ Via Treviso 12, 10144 Torino, Italy