Softimage and Maya releases are now synchronized (same release data, same “version” number), but it wasn’t always that way. Here’s a timeline comparison of the XSI and Maya releases between 1998 and 2003.
And at Siggraph 1998, back near the start of this timeline, here’s what was happening:
- Alias announced price reductions of 25 percent to 40 percent, which was welcome news to many studios interested in adding Maya to their tool set.
- Softimage showed the 2.0 version of Digital Studio (now shipping). 1.0 had been released in Nov ’97.
- Softimage continued to tantalize customers with extended previews of Sumatra.
eX-SI 
Who came up with all these lovely code names? Especially interesting would be to know, what the thinking behind XSI v3.5 (Jail) was? 😉
I wasn’t at Softimage between 00 and 04, but I did manage to track down the reason for the “Jail” codename: that release included features/fixes for Japaense customers and for ILM. So, JApan ILm
Makes sense (more or less), thanks! 😉
as a late user, i love to see these flashbacks ^^