So is DX10 going to be mandatory for FSX?

Ah yes, the DX10 question.....

...CraigL had the right answer.  No it will not be manditory....FSX will run on DX9 and on XP.  But to get the most out of it you will need a DX10 capable GPU (video card) and will have to upgrade to Windows Vista.  I'm sure it will be well worth it for anyone wanting to upgrade....I know I will, not just for FSX but for the future of computer gaming I think Vista and DX10 will be a must have.

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Uh... I doubt Linux would be any different if it were in charge of the world instead of M$.

Besides, like someone else in this forum mentioned, Bill Gates started a computer revolution that led to improvements on computers. And don't forget that buying the upgrades is a choice made by comsumers who decide on their own free will. Tell me, did Bill Gates ever made you give up the old versions of FS [by force] so that you "must" buy the newer versions? Did you really think that computer programs of the future will still rely heavily on archaic systems like my long-retired computer that costed no more than $500 and "not" try to take full advantage of the latest harrdware?

Also don't forget that many of us have demanded better graphics and dynamics. To achieve such a level of realism, FS must have a better system for rendering if you want the whole cake instead of a slice. Look at IL-2 Sturmovik at Ubi Soft. Oleg and his team said that the new flight models used complex algorithyms that require more resources. Also look at X-Plane. It also requires resources to render the extremely complex dynamics and weather effects.

Here is my system spec:

Pentium 4 Processor with 2.4 GHZ
512 MB RAM
370 GB of total Hard Drive Space
ATI Radeon 9600 with 64 MB of Memory [plus the updates]
Windows XP Home Edition [plus updates]

IL-2, X-Plane, Doom 3, America's Army and FS9 are all struggling in this system that costed me $1,600 while FS95, Razorwork's Apache Havoc, FS98 and CFS1 are having a bit of trouble understanding my system.

So, if you feel that FS9 will be way better than FSX then go ahead and stick with it. But just remember that one day when you want to play the latest games and sims 10-20 years down the road you should expect to cough up your money for upgrading.

And one more thing:

Moore's law will always be in effect regardless if you choose the PC or the Mac.

People here on SV moan constantly about frame rates even when they have top range CPU's graphics cards etc.  When those same people install FSX onto their current systems they will probably have a frame rate of 1 or 2  per week!!!

Only the most cutting edge PC's will be able to run FSX at a reasonable frame rate and certainly most "enhancements" will be disabled unless one buys Vista.

FS9 on a PC with good specs with the best scenery, airports etc will live on for quite some time. Many people are still using the earlier sims simply because now they get decent frame rates.
Personally I wouldn't consider FSX for at least a couple of years. A chance to have some of the bugs ironed out of Vista (it will ship with at least 33,000 as did XP on launch)
Especially as earlier this year M$ had to go right back to the drawing board 'cause it didn't work at all!!!!)
Vololiberista

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This is why I *try* my best to stay away from topics like this. It's kind of like politics. There's an elephant on one side and a donkey on the other. The elephant is stubborn because it never forgets and the ass is always an ass.

I agree with ashaman on this, even if his method is a little unorthodox.

Interesting to note he is from Italy. It does seem a fact that most 'anti-M$' rattlings eminate from Europe. There might be something in this, I wouldn't like to say for certain it was down to Europeans being less gullible, but I do wonder who it is on this planet who keeps falling for the same old tricks and keeps M$ in business. Whoever it is, it's not Europe.

I have a feeling vista, DX10 and FSX are not going to sell very well in Europe, certainly from what I am reading European simmers are less interested in forced upgrades than say those in the US market.

N.B. linux won't do you much good, not for flight sims.
      No one owns Linux as such, it is open source.
       Linux is really only for those with 'different' brains.

Jasper

The difference between us crazy yanks and the European folks is that we yanks have a mentality that encourages us to get the latest and greatest stuff that operates automatically with little human effort. Why do you think we Americans are starting to create houses that run on their own with a push of a button and are creating cell phones that allow us all to watch ESPN so that we can see the Miami Heat make it to the NBA Finals?

What I'm trying to say is that there are Americans out there that are sometimes a bit too lazy to fiddle around with an open source system and prefer to let the computer do most of the work for us.

Do like I do......wait a couple years or more and by the software and system second-hand and save oodles of dinero in the process.
As far as Linux, it fills a niche market but as stated earlier isn't really a gaming system. There's no profit writing kick rearend open source games. I wouldn't be surprised if someday some corporation aquires the rights to it and it no longer is open-source. Remember, MAC OS was open source in the beginning.