Then again, given some even failed to adopt the metric system ...

Also, that same tech industry has shown remarcable competence in working around IPv4's limitations.

mahboi 5 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

IPv4 is better than IPv6, and imperial is better than metric. I would like something to replace IPv4, but that thing shouldn't be IPv6 and probably won't be at this rate.

	▲	cowlevel a few seconds ago \| parent [-]
		How are they better?

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inglor_cz 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

This is quite similar situation indeed. It was once easier to adopt the metric system when the infrastructure was not yet as developed around the previous ones.

Austria-Hungary adopted the metric system in the 1870s. Back then: no cars, no highways, no speeding laws etc. Oxen-drawn wagons in the countryside were not built to a precise spec.

Only the railway, the architects and the artillery had to really switch. Ordinary people would still ask the grocer for half a pound of ham in the 1930s.

USA in the 1970s would have to remeasure all the land communications etc., or end up with a weird hybrid like the UK.

WHat we have in IPv4 and IPv6 is the weird UK-like hybrid...

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throw0101c 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Australia managed to do a complete† change over starting in the 1970s:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metrication_in_Australia

It's going to take decades, mostly waiting for the non-metric folks to die off probably and the raised-on-metric folks to grow up, but if you don't start you'll never finish.

† Can Aussie HNer confirm?

	▲	KnightHawk3 an hour ago \| parent [-]
		I'm Australian and the only things measured in imperial units is babies (stones? But I think younger parents now use metric, but my parents only know baby weights in stones), beer (pints, but not the same as overseas I think, also it can vary by state), certain types of land units ("acerage" is a common land plot size) and height (feet and inches, for some reason people don't understand it in metric) These are all customary usage so I'd say we are completely switched over, we couldn't tell you generally what these units look like outside of "how big is a baby" or "how tall is that person" or "is my beer large or small" really.