diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 6eaa5cebf..05c68b66c 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -43,18 +43,24 @@
 
 cmake_minimum_required(VERSION 3.16 FATAL_ERROR)
 
-set(CALAMARES_VERSION 3.3.0)
-set(CALAMARES_RELEASE_MODE OFF) # Set to ON during a release
+set(CALAMARES_VERSION 3.3.0-alpha1)
+set(CALAMARES_RELEASE_MODE ON) # Set to ON during a release
 
 if(CMAKE_SCRIPT_MODE_FILE)
     include(${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR}/CMakeModules/ExtendedVersion.cmake)
     set(CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR ${CMAKE_CURRENT_LIST_DIR})
-    extend_version( ${CALAMARES_VERSION} OFF _vshort _vlong )
+    extend_version( ${CALAMARES_VERSION} ${CALAMARES_RELEASE_MODE}  _vshort _vlong )
     message("${_vlong}")
     return()
 endif()
 
-project(CALAMARES VERSION ${CALAMARES_VERSION} LANGUAGES C CXX HOMEPAGE_URL "https://calamares.io/")
+# Massage the version for CMake if there is a version-suffix
+string(REGEX REPLACE "-.*" "" CALAMARES_VERSION_SHORT "${CALAMARES_VERSION}")
+# And preserve the original version (suffix and all) because project() overwrites
+# .. but if we're doing non-release builds, this gets replaced with git versioning.
+set(CALAMARES_VERSION_LONG "${CALAMARES_VERSION}")
+
+project(CALAMARES VERSION ${CALAMARES_VERSION_SHORT} LANGUAGES C CXX HOMEPAGE_URL "https://calamares.io/")
 
 if(NOT CALAMARES_RELEASE_MODE AND CMAKE_SOURCE_DIR STREQUAL CMAKE_BINARY_DIR)
     message(FATAL_ERROR "Do not build development versions in the source-directory.")
@@ -497,21 +503,15 @@ add_feature_info(ExampleDistro ${mksquashfs_FOUND} "Create example-distro target
 
 ### CALAMARES PROPER
 #
-set(CALAMARES_VERSION ${CALAMARES_VERSION_MAJOR}.${CALAMARES_VERSION_MINOR}.${CALAMARES_VERSION_PATCH})
-# In rare cases we have hotfix-releases with a tweak
-if(CALAMARES_VERSION_TWEAK)
-    set(CALAMARES_VERSION "${CALAMARES_VERSION}.${CALAMARES_VERSION_TWEAK}")
-endif()
-set(CALAMARES_VERSION_SHORT "${CALAMARES_VERSION}")
 
 # Additional info for non-release builds. The "extended" version information
 # with date and git information (commit, dirty status) is used only
 # by CalamaresVersionX.h, which is included by consumers that need a full
 # version number with all that information; normal consumers can include
 # CalamaresVersion.h with more stable numbers.
-if(NOT BUILD_RELEASE AND EXISTS "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/.git/")
+if(NOT CALAMARES_RELEASE_MODE AND EXISTS "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/.git/")
     include(ExtendedVersion)
-    extend_version( "${CALAMARES_VERSION}" OFF CALAMARES_VERSION_SHORT CALAMARES_VERSION )
+    extend_version( "${CALAMARES_VERSION}" OFF CALAMARES_VERSION_SHORT CALAMARES_VERSION_LONG )
 endif()
 
 # Special define for RC (e.g. not-a-release) builds.
diff --git a/ci/RELEASE.sh b/ci/RELEASE.sh
index 38e108d72..2d7d9a559 100755
--- a/ci/RELEASE.sh
+++ b/ci/RELEASE.sh
@@ -127,7 +127,7 @@ fi
 ### Get version number for this release
 #
 #
-V=$( cd "$BUILDDIR" && make show-version | grep ^CALAMARES_VERSION | sed s/^[A-Z_]*=// )
+V=$( cd "$BUILDDIR" && cmake -P ../CMakeLists.txt | grep ^CALAMARES_VERSION | sed s/^[A-Z_]*=// )
 test -n "$V" || { echo "Could not obtain version in $BUILDDIR ." ; exit 1 ; }
 
 ### Create signed tag
diff --git a/src/libcalamares/CalamaresVersionX.h.in b/src/libcalamares/CalamaresVersionX.h.in
index be3a9ae21..89b1beee8 100644
--- a/src/libcalamares/CalamaresVersionX.h.in
+++ b/src/libcalamares/CalamaresVersionX.h.in
@@ -11,6 +11,6 @@
 #include "CalamaresVersion.h"
 
 #undef CALAMARES_VERSION
-#cmakedefine CALAMARES_VERSION "${CALAMARES_VERSION}"
+#cmakedefine CALAMARES_VERSION "${CALAMARES_VERSION_LONG}"
 
 #endif  // CALAMARES_VERSION_H