Frankly, I don’t see this a a problem as long as the software is up to date and the hardware is sound. I bet there are thousands of SPARC servers out there processing data 24/7 since 1995.
I don’t know, I remember hearing that everything would soon be IPV6 a couple decades ago.
The alternative to IPv6 is CGNAT.
CGNAT is really annoying for users, since the entire ISP looks like a single IP address. This can lead to situations where the entire ISP accidentally gets classified as a bot or otherwise blocked. It’s not too hard to find these kinds of stories from StarLink customers.
We are at the point where we are are legitimately out of IPv4 addresses. Household NAT isn’t enough and CGNAT has too many problems. IPv6 code was written ages ago and is very stable in all OSs these days.
It really is just these legacy middle boxes holding us back.
