Is it frowned upon to release your software with > 1 first commercial version number? [closed]

Question

Is it frowned upon to release your software with a version number high than 1?

For example, some non tech-savy people might see a competitor's product with a higher version number as meaning my software is not as good.

Answer 1

I believe there are 3 major ways people market product versions:

1. Product Name [Version #] (i.e. Wordperfect 5.0)
2. Product Name [Release Year] (i.e. Gentoo 2008.0)
3. Product Name [Code Name] (i.e. Windows Vista)

I actuall prefer the release year as part of the versioning strategy, it lets your customers know what the latest version of a product is, general age of the release and using the 2008.1 type of number, you know the release is a revision (i.e. Service Pack).

If you still decide to go with a version number, I see no harm in starting with 1.1, that is what we always did at my old place of employ...

Answer 2

I would be miffed by anyone who set their version number based on marketing, rather than software engineering, considerations.

The reality is that having more releases, or patches, or a higher version doesn't make your software any inherently better, just as how having more eraser marks doesn't make something written in pencil any inherently better.

What marketing wants to call the product, I don't care, and in fact, I'd prefer that they didn't latch on to version numbers. Which Microsoft has gotten well, because while their internal version numbers remain somewhat consistent and sane, marketing doesn't push "Windows 6" but rather "Vista."