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Major version number = architectural change doesn't make a whole heap of sense from a consumer perspective.
by ajanuary 14y ago
Major version number = architectural change doesn't make a whole heap of sense from a consumer perspective.
- ars 14y agoSure it does. I signals major change that could cause breakage and new bugs.
- FooBarWidget 14y agoThat only makes sense for users who are programmers. Non-technical users have got no idea what you're talking about. All they see is the UI and the presented feature sets.
- thaumaturgy 14y agoWhat kind of version numbering would make more sense for non-technical users?
- DeepDuh 14y agoMicrosoft Office "The version to buy" edition. Followed by Microsoft Office "The version to buy, now for real, don't even think about getting anything else" edition.
- jmillikin 14y agoYear-Index. LibreOffice 2012-1 is the first release in 2012, 2012-2 is the second release, 2013-1 is the first in 2013, etc. Depending on release schedule, the second number can be the month (like Ubuntu) or dropped altogether.
- thaumaturgy 14y agoOK, sure. That seems smart, I hadn't thought of that. It would still be nice (for me) to know how carefully I need to read the changelog and whether it's a 30 second or half-day upgrade, but for most people, I can see how year-release would work better.
- FaddiCat 14y agoMicrosoft was doing that with their consumer software for a while. The biggest issue is that people think the software is out of date as soon as the next year comes along.
- kijin 14y agoWith an actively developed and rapidly changing piece of free software, version 2012 actually would be outdated (and possibly insecure) by mid-2013. If the perception of outdatedness causes more users to upgrade in a timely fashion, I think it might be a good thing. Especially since you don't need to pay anybody $300+ for the new version. Having said that, LibreOffice seriously needs a more seamless update experience for consumers. Re-downloading a 100MB installer and re-installing every time a minor update is published gets tired rather quickly.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- ars 14y agoBreakage (and bugs) for users.
- lhnn 14y agoWindows 7 Windows 8 iPhone 3 iPhone 3GS (minor update) etc.
- ZeroGravitas 14y agoThe Apple S models generally keep the outer shell similar, but introduce completely new innards.
- FooBarWidget 14y agoAnd notice that none of them break compatibility upon incrementing their major version number. They sure don't follow semantic versioning.
- Jare 14y agoArchitectural changes in a consumer product almost always bring along a new set of requirements and user-facing features: platform/OS, performance, UI design, file formats, updating policy, etc. as well as undesired bugs and regressions.