Do Software Versions Really Matter?

An anonymous reader writes "I work for a rather large software company and I am currently working on a completely new product. So new in fact, that the official name has not even been decided. I had assumed that the version number for this product would be 1.0 (at most). However recently I learned that the Product Managers want to release this NEW product with a version number somewhere between 5.0 and 8.0 because 'there is a stigma about buying 1.0 products. People assume it's no good.' This latest Dilbert-esque comedy routine nearly sent me over the edge. So to gauge my sanity against that of the upper Product Management, I ask the community: Do version numbers play a role in software decisions, or have product version numbers lost all credibility and meaning? Would the community feel comfortable buying version '6.3' software (and paying tens of thousands of dollars for it) knowing that it was the first release of the product?"

Comments

Re:It's just the opposite for me

[suckmysav]

That might be OK if you could manage to release significant version upgrades regularly, but if MS had have stuck with that from 2000 onwards most people would be still using Windows 2001 (XP) and wondering why they didn't have something a lot newer.

On second thoughts, maybe they would be more inclined to upgrade to Windows 2007 (vista) today in that case so, yeah, good work Stevie B!