ZDNet: Microsoft makes Windows detour

"Where the company had planned 'Neptune,' a consumer-oriented version of Windows based on the NT kernel, Microsoft... is now readying a combined consumer/business version of the operating system, code-named Whistler. Whistler also supplants Odyssey, referred to by some sources as NT 5.5, which had been slated as the first full-fledged upgrade to Windows 2000."

"Last spring, after deciding its original design goals were untenable, Microsoft nixed plans to move straight from Windows 98 Second Edition to an NT-kernel-based version of Windows. It added a stutter-step release of Windows, code-named Millennium, to its product mix. Millennium, which is slated to enter Beta 3 within the next couple of weeks, is due to ship by midyear."

"Just a month before Allchin's promotion, Microsoft officials admitted the company was wavering on its message that Windows 2000 would be targeted as business-only, noting that the company was prepping for the possibility that consumers would buy Windows 2000, which is due to launch Feb. 17."

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