diff --git a/_pytest/__init__.py b/_pytest/__init__.py
index 2599bd05a..df4c53b02 100644
--- a/_pytest/__init__.py
+++ b/_pytest/__init__.py
@@ -1,7 +1,10 @@
-__all__ = ['__version__']
 import pkg_resources
 
+__all__ = ['__version__']
+
 try:
     __version__ = pkg_resources.get_distribution('pytest').version
 except Exception:
-    __version__ = None  # broken installation, we don't even try
+    # broken installation, we don't even try
+    # unknown only works because we do poor mans version compare
+    __version__ = 'unknown'