[frostmatthew]

> The web killed software versioning.

Not all software are webapps (though I agree versioning is much less important, particularly for the end user, in those cases).

For those of us writing enterprise software that gets installed/ran by customers versioning is pretty important:

* Unlike a website not all our customers are using the same version, so when a bug is reported we need to know what version it was encountered.

* Customers need to know if version X of product A is compatible with version Y of product B.

* Gives customers an idea of the magnitude of changes, e.g. bumping the minor version will usually indicate mostly bug fixes, security updates, and small/non-API-breaking features.

* Facilitates easier communication with QA, beta testers, etc than referring (only) to a build.

[shortsightedsid]

There are several other cases that I can think of as well (like embedded systems). However, the main point is whether or not software is delivered to customers or is served to customers.

Webapps/SAAS applications are clearly different because customers don't install anything and therefore version numbering from a customer perspective does not have any meaning. Therefore, any meaning we attach, is for internal internal consumption only.

In even in that case, I would argue that version numbering is important. E.g the point on easier communication is exactly where internal consumption requires version numbering.