As the article made quite clear, they're into the last /8, but they are months if not at least a year away from running out. Due to the way that space is reclaimed and reallocated, they'll probably continue to have some even after this /8 is given out. If they were a more careful about who they give space to, they'd have even more. (RIPE has a big problem with fake LIRs run by crooks.)
It is now imperative that all stakeholders deploy IPv6 on their networks to ensure the continuity of their online operations and the future growth of the Internet.
Eventually IPv6 will work, I have v6 tunnels into my server and into my home LAN, but it's still surprisingly not ready for prime time, particularly in applications like mail and IM that have abuse management issues. Close to half of all the allocated IPv4 space is not routed on the public Internet. Once the free stuff runs out, there will be lots available for sale, and since there's so much, the price is not likely to be very high, perhaps $1/address in moderate sized chunks. Before anyone points out how evil it is to charge for addresses, everything you do to get online costs some money, adding IPv6 capability is not free, either the technical upgrades or the staff training, and it can be entirely reasonable and cost effective to buy some IPv4 instead. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies", Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. http://jl.ly