Growing major version

If you've got a very regular cycle like the kernel does, you can use the date when the cycle starts and get versions that are just as good as using the end of the cycle (particularly if it's only the year that's date-based). Of course, this all depends on a process where changes aren't assigned to a release until they're ready to release, with every time period seeing enough changes getting to that point to make the releases worthwhile, which is why I don't think it's a good system for the vast majority of projects.