It really is up to the pools to take the existing code and run it on their servers.   

Anybody can make use of the 0.8.6 client if they want.    Worse case is the BIPS filter out certain transactions,  but that is a non-issue really.   It all depends on what transactions the pools add to a block.

I for one don't give a damn about all this 'conservative' talk about forking... that make sense with a coin like Bitcoin... but a coin like IXC that's just trying to stay afloat?  Total B.S. in my opinion.   Same kind of idiotic logic with IXC owners keeping all coins to themselves and sending just scraps for donations.