How does the product version numbering scheme used by Zeus work?

Each product release is primarily identified by a version number consisting of a major and minor version number (for example Zeus Web Server 3.4). In some cases there will be revisions of a base product version that are subsequently released (e.g. Zeus Web Server 3.4r1).

Changes in the major version number

A change in the major version number will be reserved for when there is a large change in the functionality, performance, or behaviour of the underlying product. Changes in major version number will be relatively infrequent in most cases.

Changes in the minor version number

Changes in the minor version number indicate a release that has additional functionality and changes/extensions to the product. These changes and extensions will be designed to deliver the functionality that Zeus users require in a growing and changing industry (e.g. improved performance and compatibility), and to address any issues identified in previous releases (e.g. improved ease of use). Depending on the product a minor release can be expected every few months.

Why are there different revisions of a released version (e.g. 3.4r1)?

Zeus aims to be a flexible company to work with and to base your business critical systems on. As a result we have a team of engineers dedicated to keeping the latest released version of our products fully up to date. These revisions (which have a version number such as 3.4r1, 3.4r2 etc.) are always based on an existing version of a Zeus product, and use the minimal amount of change in order to provide the new functionality required. In most cases the changes are very minor (e.g. small customer driven extensions/changes, support for a new version of an operating system, minor usability fixes), and new and existing users should not need to upgrade unless they are specifically affected by the new functionality. In the event that a major problem is found, a new revision of the latest release would be prepared to address this, and customers potentially affected by any such problem would be informed.

In the past, revisions of some products have been released which did not use this new version numbering scheme. For example Zeus Web Server 3.3.8.4 represents a very minor change to 3.3.8 (it is effectively revision 4 of 3.3.8).

Are there any other types of release?

In some situations there may be some other types of release. For example beta versions of products may be made available to selected customers (e.g. 3.4b1), or a release candidate circulated prior to official release (e.g. 3.4rc1).

What about older version numbers?

The version number scheme used by Zeus has not always followed the outline above. For a long time the Zeus Web Server used a version numbering scheme based on X.Y.Z (e.g. Zeus Web Server 3.3.7). In many cases the new releases of Zeus Web Server (e.g. version 3.3.8) were more significant than their version number indicated. At the same time other products such as Zeus Load Balancer used a version numbering scheme based on X.Y (e.g. Zeus Load Balancer 1.3). The new scheme has been introduced to remove this inconsistency and to address any uncertainty about the amount of change in a new release of a Zeus product.

Content Manager [Administrator] 19 September 2005