Consistent Version Numbering Scheme

Just a suggestion that it might be nice to stick to a consistent version numbering scheme. May I suggest [Semantic Versioning 2.0.0](https://semver.org/)

So far there have been releases with version numbers like:

1. `{major}.{minor}.{hotfix}`
e.g. version `0.0.1` through `0.9.0`.
This is nice, and is inline with Semver.
2. `{major}.{minor}.{hotfix}-{pre-release}`.
e.g. versions `1.0.0-m1` and `1.0.0-m4`.
This is nice, and is also inline with Semver.
3. `{major}.{minor}-{pre-release}`.
e.g. version `1.0-m6`.
This is not so nice, as it is not clear if this is a continuation of the previous 1.0.0 pre-releases or not.
This is *NOT* inline with Semver.
Additionally the filenames for the downloads of `1.0-m6` seem to encode a second pre-release version label, e.g. `1.0-m6-m39` and `1.0-m6-m40`.
There is nothing necessarily wrong with the `m39` aspect, and that can also be accommodated by Semver if you wished, e.g. use instead `1.0.0-m6-m39`.

The 3rd scheme documented above adds additional difficulties for scripts that are trying to work out the latest version and/or download a specific version. Whereas for all previous versions such a script could set a `VERSION=0.9.0` and access a URL like:
```
https://archive.apache.org/dist/maven/mvnd/$VERSION/maven-mvnd-${VERSION}-linux-amd64.zip
```

That is not possible with `1.0-m6` as you would instead need something like:
```
https://archive.apache.org/dist/maven/mvnd/${VERSION}/maven-mvnd-${VERSION}-${SECONDVERSION}-linux-amd64.zip
```
and of course such a URL would not in a script be backwards compatible.

It would be great if you could settle on a consistent version numbering scheme :-)

Review the release history and the version and download-URL examples listed in this issue, then inspect how releases and artifact names are published. A complete change would define one consistent versioning scheme and make the resulting URLs usable for scripts without the ambiguity described here.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.