The FreeDOS Beta 3 "Ventura" distribution was released 22 April 1999.
Codename
Jim lived in Minnesota, and the state had then recently elected former WWE wrestler Jesse Ventura as governor the previous Fall, assumed office 4 January 1999. From Jim: "By April, he'd probably done something really dumb, and for whatever reason I memorialized it in the Beta 3 codename. (Note: I did not vote for Ventura.)"
History
This Wayback snapshot shows a news item dated 22 Apr 1999 for Beta 3. Install instructions are dated 21 Apr 1999, but there's another news item that the updated kernel was worth delaying Beta 3 to include it, so assume the install instructions were written ahead of time and the release made on 22 Apr 1999.
Announcement
WELCOME TO THE FREEDOS BETA3 DISTRIBUTION: ------------------------------------------ A few notes on the new FreeDOS Beta3 distribution: - Floppy access with this kernel is still a little slow. If you think the install program has locked up on you, but the floppy drive light is on, just sit tight for a little while and things will start working again. - I will track problems with this Beta3 distribution as reports come in to me. If you think there is a problem with the distribution, please email me <jh...@isd.net> and I'll add it to the list. The errata list will be at www.freedos.org/files/beta3/errata.html - A few packages did not come with updated LSM files, and not in all cases did I have the chance to create new ones. So a few install packages will show up with no description. This will not hurt the install process. - If you have problems with the install boot floppy, please send me an email <jh...@isd.net> and let me know what's happened.