Windows Odyssey

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Revision as of 09:07, 21 December 2014 by DeFacto (talk | contribs) (lol, "large" should've been "small")
The document that was described above which has information leading to Odyssey

Windows Odyssey was planned as new business version of Windows NT, but never came off the drawing board, as it was soon canceled along with Neptune. The kernel version is unknown, though Paul Thurrot suggested it would have been NT 6.0 and ZDNet reffers to unknown sources that claim it was NT 5.5. The document PX09637 suggests that Odyssey could indeed have the version number 6.0, as it clearly states "...Neptune/NT6 team...". Knowing that Neptune is 5.50, it's only logical to conclude Odyssey was to be 6.0.

The team working on Odyssey was merged with Neptune's team which lead to the creation of Codename Whistler (ultimately released as Windows XP) which has two main editions, namely Professional and Home Edition, but there are also several other SKUs..
One Alpha build of Neptune was released to selected testers (build 5.50.5111.1, which later leaked to public). However, Odyssey is only mentioned in the Microsoft vs Comes documents, but even they are unclear as to what exactly Odyssey is and it appears to change between the handful of times it is mentioned. However, the most common occurence suggests it was actually a major update to be delivered after NepTune and Triton (which was scheduled to be a minor update to Neptune).

Comes vs. Microsoft Documents

A small number of confidential documents from the Comes vs. Microsoft case discuss Odyssey, and do actually reveal that Odyssey was in the making.

Document Dated Codename Information
PX06262 1997/12/11 NT 6
  • Briefly mentions NT 6 on page 5 (doc)/15 (AR)
PX06382 1998/04/28 NT6
  • Tentatively planned for FY01 Release
  • Divide NT Workstation into "Entry" and "Standard" SKUs
  • Suggested Upgrade Pricing at $50 for "Entry", $100 for "Standard"
  • "Turbo" SKU mentioned in one table, above "Standard"
  • Differeniate Client SKUs based on Hardware support, included software, functionality restrictions
  • Deliver "Big Bang" NT6 release
  • Yearly fee for Windows Update, plus a higher support level with Windows Update "Platinum"
PX06407 1998/05/29 NT6
  • Includes a copy of PX06262
PX09637 1998/07/29 NT6
  • Inclusion of Windows Schemas, 3rd Party Schemas allowed
  • NT6 to include a new UI model
  • "New Services" for Personalization and User Assistance
  • Richer understanding of data at file-system level - possibly linked to Windows Schemas
  • Neptune/NT6 team
PX03277 1998/08/01 NT6
  • Includes a copy of PX09367
PX06720 2000/02/22 Odyssey
  • Confirms that Odyssey was indeed in development