What's wrong with using server_version?

>>> import mariadb

>>> conn=mariadb.connect()

>>> conn.server_version;

100600

get_server_version will return an tuple and server_version only an integer.
So you can simple access the needed part of the version number.
get_server_version will return ("5", "5","1") for example for version 5.5.1

Implemented in rev. a47d3e5d760d037e57082b663d7f3c9fd350a998

Added connection attribute server_version_info and (for compatibility) get_server_version() method. Both return a tuple, describing the version number of connected server in following format: (MAJOR_VERSION, MINOR_VERSION, PATCH_VERSION)