Replace choffmeister/git-describe-semver GH action

Replace the (currently) problematic GitHub Action with a
custom job (`git_describe_semver`) that explicitly uses the
v0.3.11 version of the Docker container to generate the release
asset release version.

That version is captured as the job's `version` output which
is referenced by other jobs in the build-images and
release-build workflows. Those jobs are set as dependent on
the `git_describe_semver` job so that they only run after
the asset release version is computed.

Since the value is computed once at the start of the workflow,
I've updated the `actions/checkout` step for each job to use
the default checkout option(s) instead of pulling the full
repo history each time. This should (somewhat) optimize that
step in the build process.

refs GH-1276