Disable IPv6 by default.

[Richi Plana]

On Thu, 2007-09-13 at 11:22 -0400, Chuck Anderson wrote:
> Yes, the system sends out IPv6 Neighbor Discovery messages and
> listens 
> for IPv6 Router Advertisement messages.  This all happens 
> automatically by default in Fedora thanks to the hard work that has 
> gone into enabling IPv6 by default in the OS, applications, and 
> services.  If you are on a network that supports IPv6, it all Just 
> Works(TM), just the same as IPv4 has up to this point.

How did enabling IPv6 by default contribute to the development of IPv6
Neighbor Discovery? Oh ... did you mean that the developers were
motivated to do it because IPv6 was enabled by default?

Could you tell me a little bit more about this IPv6 Neighbor Discovery?
Perhaps I can get it to do what I want (remove the IPv6 modules when it
hasn't discovered the IPv6 neighbor)

> > If it isn't used, then free up the unused resources.
> 
> IMHO the resource argument is a red herring.  Perhaps we should not 
> ship GNOME by default because it uses too much resources?  OTOH, 
> perhaps we should disable IPv4 by default, or free all kernel 
> resources related to IPv4 if there is no response from an IPv4 DHCP 
> server?  I don't think these are very good arguments.

The point isn't that the users have to justify their reasons. It's that
it's what they want (for one reason or another) and the question becomes
"Will Fedora help them exercise their freedom?".

As for the Gnome argument: Fedora has decided (for their reasons) to
make Gnome the default. But at the very least, Fedora makes it possible
and even easy to install KDE instead or not install a desktop
environment (albeit with some difficulty). KDE-switching was made easy
because there was a demand for it. No DE is possible (and I applaud
Fedora for it) but it requires some finagling, and that's alright
because there's much less demand for it.

Going back to IPv6: Sure, make it the default, but there's obviously
quite a few people who are asking for it, and these people are asking to
make things easier for them. Prior to the original poster's message, I
actually have to disable IPv6 on ALL my computers by hand. This means
going through editing a couple of config files some of which might even
be unnecessary because there's no authority telling me what's needed.
Having a simple Off switch in system-config-network would go a long way
in helping me.

One thing I've noticed is that people have this tendency to shove down
people's throats their own brand of doing things. It's fine to suggest
or even provide those solutions as default, but understand that so long
as alternative solutions don't adversely affect other people, they
shouldn't prevent them from doing so (not that a lot of people are doing
this, but ... ->).. Better yet, HELP these people achieve their goals in
the way they want if it's not too much to ask for.

Unfortunately, a lot of people think that the less people adopt their
solutions, the more their solutions adoptions are threatened. It's why
those silly flamefests even exist.

Freedom is mandatory but, unfortunately, cooperation is optional.
--

Richi Plana