This is just a random thought so feel free to skip it.
Anyway, I was watching a Bogey Dope’s DCS Update 2.9.4.53549 video when I realized that we are getting rather close to DCS 3.0. My rabbit brain rounded the version number to 2.9.5. I think I might have to check myself in because it might be time for an intervention. 
I did wonder if the 3.0 will be the dynamic campaign, not sure what else it could be, wags said in the interview that Vulkan would be at least next year, so I’m not sure what else it could be
@trevorr610 It’s not a bad thought.
Usually such a drastic number change includes a major change in the code.
Unlikely to happen any time soon.
Maybe with the Vulkan implementation?
EDIT: to explain it better
What are the 3 numbers in versioning?
For example DCS is 2.9.5
These numbers have names.
The leftmost number (2) is called the major version.
The middle number (9) is called the minor version.
The rightmost number (5) is called the revision but it may also be referred to as a “point release” or “subminor version”.
I do have to correct your expectation here- we are not close to 3.0
Well, not that close anyways.
As mathematicians love to remind everyone, most of the time, there’s an infinite amount of values between two numbers.
So technically speaking minor versions and revisions could go on until the heat death of the universe and never reach 3.0
Of course that doesn’t mean that we’ll never see it- just don’t trust the numbers that much.
Watching and see the DCS progression, and seeing 2.9.4.53549, to 3.0.0 we still have 546451 more patches to go and wait hahahaha
On a more pedantic note, what you describe is called semantic versioning. There are other ways of doing versioning as well, but in recent years, semantic versioning has become pretty widespread.
To expand on @komemiute answer, in semantic versioning there is an implicit significance to the different version numbers:
The fun part is, what actually constitutes a breaking change in EDs case? Not even two patch versions can be reasonably considered to be compatible. As far as I know, they don’t guarantee any kind of mission/scripting system compatibility accross even two distinct build numbers, so it all seems very arbitrary, from a software development point of view.
I adjusted my version to the audience of this forum…
And I played the part of the pedantic arse. It’s a dirty job but someone’s gotta do it. 
It could be as many or as few as they want.
But yes, I expect 3.0 to introduce Vulkan and not be until 2025 at the earliest.
The biggest deal will likely be frame gen for those with lower end GPUs that could use it.
Frankly, with MT and DLSS/DLAA right now I’ve got my fps locked at 100 and it only occasionally dips below that. I only fly 2D, and not 4k, but 1440p/2k. So I don’t really need Vulkan or frame gen for more performance.
However, if those enable them to further improve lighting without impacting the performance negatively, then I will be happy. 
For now, though, their dynamic campaign and AI improvements are more important to me than upping performance.
Wow. I did not expect my comment to spark the slightest bit of commentary. It was just a random comment just for the heck of it. I thought I was being silly. For the record, I understand flight sim development and do not expect Ver. 3 before 2025.
Admittedly, I have learned something about version numbering. 
The thread title however is quite…irritating. I keep perking up expecting some interesting news on the future of my favourite hobby, only to find chatter about the semantics of version numbers. Meh.
Edit: there, ftfy
I’m trying to remember what drastic changes we got in 2.7, 2.8, and 2.9, but I can only remember the clouds and warbird damage models in 2.7. Then 2.8 was…MT?
My apologies. It was a random thought and l gave little consideration to the title and the content. I’ll do better, next time. Thanks for fixing it.
2.9 was DLSS and a few other (probably extensive in the code) changes to the graphics engine IIRC?
2.8.0 was:
Fortunately there are infinite iterations of Something(dot)something’sversion(dot)something’ssomething’sversion before you get to something +1. 3.0 can still be safely years away. DCS2.0 brought me half a dozen DCS icons on my screen. Since corrected but I for one am not looking forward to 3.0.
ya know 1.2 went up to .16 before we made the interm. jump to 1.5 and DX11 and 2.0 Alpha w/ DX11 and Terrain Engine 5.
we got plenty of numbers after 2.5 still.