>Though on the whole the number of freeware designers is going down. I find that very hard to believe. Sure, some prominent names have left the hobby or moved on to payware over the last couple of years. Eric Ernst is one name in particular...I loved his 767 panels, and although I'm sure PIC is a great product, I haven't felt compelled to spend my money on it, so I don't have it. But are you going to tell me we haven't had great panel development since then? That Paul Golding and Bill Grabowski haven't achieved the same proficiency that Eric Ernst showed on v7 of his 767 panel?Take a look at the Aircraft/Panel Design forum, and look at how many new designers come through all the time looking for tips. The rate of new designers joining our hobby is most certainly greater than the rate at which the old guys are moving on. Yes, there are more repaints than ever before, but there are more models and panels in development than ever before as well.Folks, let's stop complaining about the sorry state the world is in. Freeware and payware are both alive and kicking, and the existence of one does not spell the demise of the other. The fact that a shareware file has appeared in the library doesn't hurt anyone. If you don't want to use it, just quietly go your way without it. Don't want to upgrade your machine to take advantage of the newest features available for flight simulator? Don't...there's no reason you can't keep enjoying the old versions; FS98 was a great sim. Like X-Plane better than MSFS? Great...then fly it, and I'm glad you'll be enjoying yourself. What good does complaining on this forum do? If you don't like FS anyway, then what difference does it make? And if you don't like MS, you should be happy if you think their product is sub-par, because it means they won't make as much money on it.k, enough ranting,Matt

Matt, You should believe. How many actual new items do we see ? Sure lots of reworks, repaints but very few new. Paul Golding by the way has done his last freeware if my aged brain recollects.Overall, the balance of who's in, who's out generally remains the same, though at the moment I believe there is an imbalance of which the scales of the payware guys will reduce soon if what I'm told by some is correct.The reason for this Warez, filez or in plain speak downright theft. This is a problem that appears to be being swept under the carpet,the populist sites know who and where they are but with very little action taken it would seem. I know of one publishing house who now have a full time guy, tracking and closing these sites down. This is the new scum targeting this hobby.George