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On Wed, Feb 22, 2006 at 10:43:24AM -0500, J. Scott Kasten wrote:
>=20
> And that is precisely where the argument fails with most managers and=20
> executives.  They look at that and ask, "What does that have to do with m=
y=20
> product?" (Assume printer, copier, fax, or other appliance.)  It becomes=
=20
> difficult to describe just what the value add is for simple products like=
=20
> that.  The execs feel like you are talking about the pie in the sky world=
.=20
> They are concerned about whether this is going to bring in additional=20
> revenue in the next product release when this is going to add $500,000 to=
=20
> the development cost now.  (Think two developers hacking code for months,=
=20
> a user inteface team spending months figuring out what easy=20
> configuration would look like then running teams of people through=20
> usability testing, an entire quality assurance team developing new=20
> regression tests, and spending months actually testing it.)

I think a better determination is how much does it cost compared to the=20
rest of the product. I think it would only cost $500,000 to add if you had=
=20
multi-million $ development costs.

If your product uses getaddrinfo(), socket ceration/binding does not cost=
=20
more. You only need human visible issues (logging addresses, configuring=20
addresses, etc.) and GUI changes. If you're fine with auto-configured=20
addresses, just 'UP' all the network interfaces and let NetBSD's=20
/etc/rc.d/network code splat addresses on all of them. Document and test,=
=20
and you're done (yes, I know I saved the largest part for last).

I think a good way to explain why the managers care is that when companies=
=20
(governments, etc.) have moved to IPv6 being the main routed protocol,=20
IPv4-only products will lose utility. They won't be as widely accessible;=
=20
the IPv6-enabled product will be usable across the facility campus, while=
=20
the IPv4-only one can't be used outside of the building. So when the=20
professor/lab director/purchasing director wants to print from his or her=
=20
wireless laptop (which is thus outside the firewalls as the security folks=
=20
put the wireless nets outside for protection) and only IPv6-enabled ones=20
will work right, which product do you think will be bought? :-)

Take care,

Bill

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