This seems like a little more of a hack than necessary.

```ruby
chef > node['platform_version'].split('.')[0,2].join()
 => "108" 
chef > node['platform_version'].split('.')[0,2].join().class
 => String 
```

As of 11.6.0 you can do something like this, which is a bit long.

```ruby
if Chef::Version::Platform.new(node['platform_version']) >= Chef::Version::Platform.new("10.8")
```