https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mx5-T8ZwxbU
I was completely ignorant that wifi had generations, let alone WiFi 6 is coming. Really informative stuff.
It's cool that they're finally starting to drop the 802.11 nomenclature. It was always a stupid design.
They're not dropping it, just abandoning its use in marketing. WiFi 6 is still 802.11ax. If you're into such things, IEEE standards codes are really interesting stuff to read about. It's weird to see the individual project and standards codes for things we take for granted as universal standards, like Ethernet.
There's an alternate universe where Ethernet never made it big and we're all still using Token Ring.
I’ve still got an 802.11b router running for my windows 98 machines
You probably did and just didn't realize it, being more used to the 802.11 nomenclature where they add a new "standard" with a different letter suffix every few years; so that we used to see stuff like "Wireless G" routers, then "Wireless N", and the recent standard being 802.11ac equipment. As Linus explains in the video, they're only starting to use the explicitly generational nomenclature now, by rebranding 802.11ax to "Wi-Fi 6" and retroactively rebranding previous standards to older numbered generations.
Wi-Fi 6 = 802.11ax
Wi-Fi 5 = 802.11ac
Wi-Fi 4 = 802.11n
And while he doesn't mention earlier ones in the video, from my understanding it continues back like so:
Wi-Fi 3 = 802.11g
Wi-Fi 2 = 802.11a/b
Wi-Fi 1 = 802.11 (often called "legacy mode" once a/b came along)
IEEE 802 is the set of standards for WAN and MAN networks, the .11 is specifically the standards regarding wifi. Ethernet is 802.3, Cat5 and Cat6 twisted pair cables 802.3bz. Bluetooth is 802.15.1. 802.11 isn't stupid at all, it's just the standard naming convention of the IEEE.
Right, and as AtomicSans posted, those names aren't going away, they'll just be relegated to the technical side of things because numbered generations are easier to understand for the layperson consumer.
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