Re: Telnet and FTP to Historic

[Phillip Hallam-Baker <[e-mail]>]

On Wed, Dec 2, 2020 at 3:57 PM John C Klensin <[e-mail]> wrote:

>
>
> --On Wednesday, December 2, 2020 13:32 -0500 Phillip
> Hallam-Baker <[e-mail]> wrote:
>
> >...
> > But even if every developer needs to use telnet for debugging
> > on a daily basis, that is still no reason for telnet to keep
> > its standards status. I would like to see us being more
> > aggressive in rendering old protocols obsolete so as to
> > encourage new ones. and to discourage continued use of
> > insecure protocols.
> >...
>
> Unless the rules changed when I wasn't looking (Scott should
> check me on this), the goal of IETF standards is to define
> conditions for interoperability
> among those who choose to use them.


https://www.ietf.org/about/

"The mission of the IETF is to make the Internet work better by producing
high quality, relevant technical documents that influence the way people
design, use, and manage the Internet."

Seems that the 'rules' have changed. As they should because we are no
longer serving an insular community of a few thousand academics. We have
been operating at planetary scale for decades now.


As for whether IoT device makers would stop using telnet if it was
deprecated, that is a good question. It is not one that I think we should
simply assume we know the answer to. The IETF would like people to move
from IPv4 to IPv6.

This is not the first time I have suggested the following strategy, but
everyone else seems to keep repeating themselves: If the IETF wants to
persuade people to stop using IPv4 and switch to IPv6 it needs to get into
the business of telling people what to use and what not to use.


Oh and as Stephen points out, we have been telling people not to use
insecure stuff for quite a while. We deprecate stuff in the security area
all the time even if people are still wanting to use it. There are people
would be happily using SSL/3.0 today if we hadn't made that really hard.


Oh and yes, I totally reject any set of rules I don't get a vote in
deciding.