This is what I expect to see, and do see on Windows: (client version 9.5.0.311)
Q: (it as version) of "Mozilla Firefox 49.0 Available"
A: 49.0
T: 0.025 ms
I: singular version
This is what I seem to be getting on Ubuntu: (client version 9.5.2.56)
Q: (it as version) of "Mozilla Firefox 49.0 Available"
A: Mozilla Firefox 49.0 Available
T: 35
I: version
This is on windows: (expected result)
Q: maximum of (it as version) of ("Mozilla Firefox 49.0 Available";"Mozilla Firefox 45.4.0 ESR Available")
A: 49.0
T: 0.075 ms
I: singular version
Ubuntu:
Q: maximum of (it as version) of ("Mozilla Firefox 49.0 Available";"Mozilla Firefox 45.4.0 ESR Available")
A: Mozilla Firefox 49.0 Available
T: 2855
I: version
I haven’t been able to determine the cause, or if it is due to a version difference in the BigFix client, or if it has just always been this way. The systems are both on v9.5.x so I wouldn’t expect that to be the cause even though they are not on the exact same version.
Windows versions are required to be the canonical X.X.X.X versions where Mac and UNIX can (and do) contain characters and thus if you give it a string… that IS your version.
I do find it interesting that Windows is finding the number in the string and I almost find that wrong (as you didn’t really give it something it can make a version out of without dropping information)
Also, it would be useful if there was an inspector that behaved the same way on all platforms, like if there was a new inspector that always worked the way the windows one did.
As much as possible I prefer that relevance of the same name have the same behavior across all platforms. It does make sense that the version inspector would take into account platform specific ways of doing things, but it would be nice if alternatives exist as well that were consistent.