[TUHS] Last officially distributed and currently available BSD version

[Will Senn]

All,

I'm not 100% sure how best to ask this, but here goes...

I own a copy of the CSRG Archives CD Set that Kirk McKusick maintained. 
I bought them ages and ages ago  (BTW, they are now all available on 
Archive.org). I dusted them off today because I had the brilliant idea 
that with my significant growth in understanding related to all things 
unix and ancient unix, that I might find them interesting and useful. 
They are interesting, jury's out on useful beyond being a broweasable 
historical archive of individual files. One of the CD's contains a 4.4 
and 4.4BSD-Lite2 folder and is labeled releases (disk 3). I opened the 
4.4 folder and it appears to be a set of folders and files I would 
expect to find on a release tape, but unlike a tape, which one could 
mount and boot from, I have no idea if this would be usable as install 
media (if you do, please let me know how).

I googled about the two releases and although the same text appears all 
over the place about how Berkeley released one version, then removed 
some components, then re-released, and eventually wound up at 
4.4BSD-Lite2, I could not figure out whether the word release meant 
sourcecode, installable media, or what. I gather a lot of this made 
sense back in the early 1990's but it's all a bit muddy to me in 2017. 
In trying to figure it all out, I came across a webpage talking about 
2.11BSD (maintained into this decade) and another about 4.3BSD 
Quasijarus (also maintained in this decade?). Both descriptions 
contained the text, "It is the release of 4.4BSD-Lite, and requires the 
original UNIX license" (see http://damnsmallbsd.org/pub/BSD-UNIX). My 
sense of things after reading and browsing and such is that with regards 
to 4.4, 4.4BSD-Lite, and 4.4BSD-Lite2, they are either not released 
(4.4), encumbered and retracted (4.4BSD-Lite), or not installable 
(4.4BSD-Lite2)...

Dang, so confusing...

My interest is pretty much based on a strong desire to boot up a 4.4 
system that as closely as possible maps to the one described in "The 
Design and Implementation of the 4.4 BSD Operating System" that I can 
experiment with as I'm going through the text. I think I understand the 
version history as it is described in various places, but I just can't 
figure how the last handful of versions relate to real media that is 
available to enthusiasts.

Questions begging answers:

What is the last bootable and installable media, officially distributed 
by Berkeley?

Is that image currently publicly accessible?

What is the closest version, that is currently available, that would 
match the os described in "The Design and Implementation of the 4.4 BSD 
Operating System"?

Many thanks,

Will






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