The FreeDOS Beta 5 "Lara" distribution was released 11 August 2000.
Codename
Jim played a lot of Tomb Raider on the Playstation in the late 1990s. The "Lara" codename came about because he was really looking forward to the new Tomb Raider Chronicles (released 24 November 2000). From Jim: "I think this was advertised as the last Tomb Raider game they were going to make, so I probably memorialized it in the Beta 5 codename." The title character in Tomb Raider is Lara Croft.
History
This Wayback snapshot shows the Beta 5 was released on 11 Aug 2000. Assume that is more correct.
Annoucement
THE FREEDOS BETA5 ("LARA") DISTRIBUTION
RELEASE NOTES
Jim Hall <jh...@isd.net>
August 10, 2000
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Welcome to the Beta5 distribution!
I'll post any problems/updates with the Beta5 on the FreeDOS web site
at www.freedos.org/files/distributions/beta5/errata.html page,
and also at www.freedos.org/files/ (Please read the errata, as
I don't enjoy answering questions that were already answered in the
errata. I particularly get tired of answering the one about the
"bloodhound" virus that Norton thinks it finds on the install boot
floppy. There is no virus.)
In the mean time, some things you need to watch out for:
* Floppy access under the FreeDOS kernel is still a little slow. The
installation will take longer than you may expect, and running
programs from the Install Boot Floppy is slow.
* The install program has a little bug in it where you SHOULD NOT use
a trailing backslash for the install Source Dir or Dest Dir. You
will get a weird error if you do this. If you do get the error,
just exit out of the install program and re-run it (remembering
this time NOT to use the trailing backslash.)
* The install program really should ask you to insert the first disk
of the first install set before it tries to do anything. But I
didn't fix that bug before Beta5, mostly because I'm lazy. If you
have the Install Boot Floppy in the drive, the install program will
correctly ask for the Base1 disk. However, if you don't have ANY
floppy in the drive at the time, you get a very odd error message
from the kernel. Please watch out for this.
* The install program (rather, the underlying Unzip library) will
only create the last level subdirectory. That means that if you
are trying to install to C:\BETA5\FDOS and C:\BETA5 does not exist,
you will receive an error. However, if you are trying to install
to C:\FDOS and C:\FDOS does not exist, then C:\FDOS will be created
for you.
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ABOUT THE NAME
Every "beta" FreeDOS distribution has received its own code name. The
history has been:
Beta1 (Orlando)
I was trying to finish up the first FreeDOS beta at the same time I
was getting ready to visit my brother in Orlando, Florida. The name
stuck in my head for some reason.
Beta2 (Marvin)
When the FreeDOS Project was first formed, UW-RF (where I attended
university) was taking its old VAX system off-line. The VAX was
named "Marvin", from the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Beta3 (Ventura)
Jesse "The Body" Ventura became Jesse "The Governor" Ventura not long
before the Beta3 release. I live in Minnesota, and Jesse is my
governor. Oh me.
Beta4 (Lemur)
I just love lemurs. Pesky little creatures. And okay, I'll admit
that I was sort of hoping someone would take it as a suggestion as a
FreeDOS mascot, but I've changed my mind since about that.
The FreeDOS Beta5 Distribution is "Lara", named after famous adventure
archaeologist Lara Croft from the very cool Tomb Raider games.
Okay, maybe I'm a bit too much of a Lara Croft geek - I've been a big
fan of Tomb Raider and Lara Croft ever since popping in a CD-ROM from
a magazine that contained a demo of TR2. After that, I just *had* to
get all of the games, even going back to play TR1 and all the "gold"
releases. And I have one of the Lara Croft "diaramas" on my desk at
work.