I believe that Flight gear will be able to take FS's place if they continue to advance like this.

I remember trying out Flight Gear during its earlier incarnations. I saw a lot of potential as well with this time and I was even more impressed by the wide range of keyboard/mouse controls for this simulator. I'm planning on getting a new joystick soon so that I can try out the latest version of Flight Gear. I like to see how the flight models have improved over the years.

Hello everyone

I'm new to the forum, although not new to the main site. I've been involved in computers for 35 years now (yes getting on in years), and was fortunate to have grown up and be involved in SIMS, both flying and otherwise from an early age, having military parents. When the first MS Flight Sim launched, MSFS I, I acquired it in mid 1983, I was hooked. I had both a hobby to go with my career stuff, which was fixing all things Unix/main frame and then early days MS, DOS 1.1 through 3.3, Windows 286, 386 to 3.0. the rest is history. I now do them all along with Apple O/S and Linux, my own business for the last two years.

Where am I going with this, well I have enjoyed FlightGear in the same way, from it's early incantations, version 0.80 for me, starting with it in 2002, to present 2.6. And I can say for a free SIM supported by pure hobbyists in their free time with no real commercial input in site, I think this SIM is a phenomenal achievement compared to the many other commercial SIMS and wannabe's out there. What it lacks in real eye candy (the scenery and especially the shorelines could be better), it makes up for true accuracy of what it is really all about, flying an aerial machine correctly and with competency. More than a game a true SIM.

Here's something I am giving for you to ponder on and it could be fact, as far as I have researched it, and come into contact with. Tell me how many real world commercial SIMS out there are using a MS product, my experience none (maybe this will change with Lockheed Martin buying the code of FSX and creating Prepar3D, but outlandishly overpriced for the majority of us), but they ARE using something proprietary, or X-Plane or FlightGear, due to their real world flight dynamics more accurate over what MS offers.

Anyway that's my perspective of a SIM I thoroughly enjoy, just my 2 cents worth to add to some debate. And I currently use MSFS 2004, FSX, FlightGear and X-Plane, among a number of other current and not so current combat sims, Kamov Ka-50, Flaming Cliffs, CFS3,  iL2 Sturmik 1946 and CoD, Rise of Flight etc.

Regards