SemVer is a relatively recent proposal that the vast majority of software does not follow. Calling the three parts of a three-part version “major”, “minor” and “patch” is a SemVer thing, not a universal standard.
Example from 20 years ago:
> The most popular version numbering scheme stems from the <major>.<minor>.<patchlevel> scheme
— https://ask.slashdot.org/story/01/01/05/0054230/version-numb...
Example from 1997:
> Python versions are numbered A.B.C or A.B. A is the major version number -- it is only incremented for major changes in functionality or source structure. B is the minor version number, incremented for less earth-shattering changes to a release. C is the patchlevel -- it is incremented for each new patch release.
— https://web.archive.org/web/19970501012343/http://www.python...