The FreeDOS Beta 9 RC1 "Methusalem" distribution was released 19 July 2003. This was the last distribution to use a codename.
Codename
We aren't exactly sure about the origin of this codename. From Jim: "I wasn't the release manager for this version, so I'm not sure why we picked this name. I suspect this is because the Bible says Methusalem lived the longest at 969 years old, and the new release manager might have been making a joke at how long DOS had been around."
History
This Wayback snapshot says "2003-07-19" as the release date for "FreeDOS Beta 9 Prerelease 1 ("Methusalem")." Released by Bernd Blaauw.
Release notes
This was the first distribution to save the release notes as an HTML file. Below is a text-only extract of the release notes:
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