I like the current format that Microsoft uses with Office, using the year in the software is similar to what car manufacturers use. I use Office 2007 at work, so I know I’m using an older model. This makes it easy to judge just how far out of date you are, and how far behind the times they are in making new changes by looking at the year the most recent version is marked with. Office also has version numbers, but I don’t think many people know what they are or care unless they are programatically checking for which version is installed.

When the current version number system works the way it’s supposed to, it’s fairly easy to follow, but let marketing in on the game and you get those funky version number jumps which are silly.