diff --git a/Basic/Core/Core.pm b/Basic/Core/Core.pm
index 940ba77fb..8d260bee6 100644
--- a/Basic/Core/Core.pm
+++ b/Basic/Core/Core.pm
@@ -5,11 +5,9 @@ package PDL::Core;
 use strict;
 use warnings;
 use PDL::Exporter;
-require PDL; # for $VERSION
 use DynaLoader;
 our @ISA    = qw( PDL::Exporter DynaLoader );
-our $VERSION = '2.028'; # PAUSE insists - below is the real one
-$VERSION = $PDL::VERSION;
+our $VERSION = '2.095'; # as of 2.096 this is the real one
 bootstrap PDL::Core $VERSION;
 use PDL::Types ':All';
 use Config;
diff --git a/Basic/Core/Makefile.PL b/Basic/Core/Makefile.PL
index 3ece8a3a7..0365686b8 100644
--- a/Basic/Core/Makefile.PL
+++ b/Basic/Core/Makefile.PL
@@ -36,16 +36,10 @@ my @cfiles = qw(pdlcore pdlapi pdlbroadcast pdlconv pdlmagic pdlaffine pdlutil);
 my $cobj = join ' ', map qq{$_\$(OBJ_EXT)}, @cfiles;
 WriteMakefile(
   NAME	        => 'PDL::Core',
-  VERSION_FROM => '../lib/PDL.pm',
-  PM          => {
-    (map +($_,'$(INST_LIBDIR)/'.$_), qw/Core.pm/),
-  },
+  VERSION_FROM => 'Core.pm',
   OBJECT       => 'Core$(OBJ_EXT) ' . $cobj,
   DEFINE 	=> $pthread_define,
   LIBS         => [$libs_string],
-  clean        => {'FILES'  =>
-		   "Core.c"
-		   },
   INC          => join(' ',
     PDL::Core::Dev::PDL_INCLUDE(),
     map {length($_) ? qq{"$_"} : ()} $pthread_include
diff --git a/Basic/Makefile.PL b/Basic/Makefile.PL
index 3f634493f..cfb8ac6bc 100644
--- a/Basic/Makefile.PL
+++ b/Basic/Makefile.PL
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ EOT
 
 WriteMakefile(
   NAME	=> 'PDL',
-  VERSION_FROM => 'lib/PDL.pm',
+  VERSION_FROM => 'Core/Core.pm',
   DIR => [qw(
     Core Bad Ops Ufunc Primitive Slices Math MatrixOps
     IO-Misc IO-Pnm
diff --git a/Basic/lib/PDL.pm b/Basic/lib/PDL.pm
index 5020e83c8..550472161 100644
--- a/Basic/lib/PDL.pm
+++ b/Basic/lib/PDL.pm
@@ -3,8 +3,10 @@ package PDL;
 use strict;
 use warnings;
 
-# set the version:
+# set the version - NB as of 2.096, the real version is in PDL::Core
 our $VERSION = '2.095';
+require PDL::Core;
+$VERSION = $PDL::Core::VERSION;
 
 =head1 NAME
 
diff --git a/Basic/lib/PDL/Core/Dev.pm b/Basic/lib/PDL/Core/Dev.pm
index d96e53e51..2cf01c2b1 100644
--- a/Basic/lib/PDL/Core/Dev.pm
+++ b/Basic/lib/PDL/Core/Dev.pm
@@ -229,7 +229,7 @@ sub _stdargs {
   }
   (
     NAME  	=> $mod,
-    VERSION_FROM => ($internal ? catfile($w, qw(PDL.pm)) : $src),
+    VERSION_FROM => ($internal ? catfile(dirname($w), qw(Core Core.pm)) : $src),
     TYPEMAPS     => [PDL_TYPEMAP()],
     PM 	=> {"$pref.pm" => "\$(INST_LIBDIR)/$pref.pm"},
     MAN3PODS => {"$pref.pm" => "\$(INST_MAN3DIR)/$mod.\$(MAN3EXT)"},
diff --git a/Changes b/Changes
index 90de151bd..b97f0d952 100644
--- a/Changes
+++ b/Changes
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 - PDL::PP::Dump removed - set $::PP_VERBOSE in .pd instead
 - add IO::Misc::bswap16
 - IO::Misc::bswap* now give error if try to swap more bytes than type-size
+- the distro VERSION now comes from PDL::Core
 
 2.095 2024-11-03
 - add PDL_GENTYPE_IS_{REAL,FLOATREAL,COMPLEX,SIGNED,UNSIGNED}_##ppsym (#502)
diff --git a/Makefile.PL b/Makefile.PL
index 62f37a5c6..42816db78 100644
--- a/Makefile.PL
+++ b/Makefile.PL
@@ -80,7 +80,7 @@ my %makefile_hash = (
   },
   MIN_PERL_VERSION => '5.014',
   NAME => 'PDL',
-  VERSION_FROM => 'Basic/lib/PDL.pm',
+  VERSION_FROM => 'Basic/Core/Core.pm',
   META_MERGE => {
      "meta-spec" => { version => 2 },
      resources => {