The Internet as Legacy System

摘要

Most IT pros place a high value on technical innovation. Whether it's Moore's Law driving down the price/performance of CPUs or more disruptive technologies changing the way we compute and communicate, progress requires new ideas. Unfortunately, we can't transition from status quo to newer and better without dealing with the pain of legacy systems. Sometimes, this pain is so great that we do all we can to avoid it. The public switched telephone network, invented long before most of us were born and architecturally obsolete, is one such legacy system. Others include cellular phone systems, personal computers, Ethernet, Wi-Fi and TCP/IP. In each case, if we could only start over, knowing what we know today, life would be better. Re-engineering existing systems affords few of the freedoms of invention. The legacy slate is a dirty one, and the installed base of users is loathe to pay the transition costs.