What is this? Is this FS2004 repackaged?http://www.flightprosim.com/Looks weird and suspect.Anyone know anything about it?

Search, a wonderful tool if you decide to use it;http://forums1.avsim.net/index.php?showtop...hl=flightsimpro

FlightProSim is a slightly old version of the free open source flight simulator, Flight Gear, and about the only difference between the two is that the people selling FlightProSim have changed the name of it and decided to charge money for providing it. That might be an immoral act (at least in my opinion it is) but it is not an illegal one, by virtue of the fact that Flight Gear is is a free open source project, with which, people can pretty much do as they please.The sim is actually fairly good, and it looks sort of similar to what Fly! looked like if you ever had that, with a menu interface that is reminiscent of X-Plane. I would hesitate to say Flight Gear (or indeed the somewhat cheeky clone of it that is FlightProsim) is a rival to FS or X-Plane, but then again, that isn't really its purpose, which is to provide a fairly decent flight simulator that people can freely mess about with, without breaking any EULAS. Unfortunately, that ability to mess around with it and do as one pleases, was enough to convince some types to come up with the notion of renaming it and attempting to pass it off as their own original flight simulation product by making little or no mention of the fact that it was basically the same thing as Flight Gear. But then again, that's the kind of thing that happens on the net.If you are curious, do a search for Flight Gear and check it out (you can download it at no cost).Al

FlightProSim is a slightly old version of the free open source flight simulator, Flight Gear, and about the only difference between the two is that the people selling FlightProSim have changed the name of it and decided to charge money for providing it. That might be an immoral act (at least in my opinion it is) but it is not an illegal one, by virtue of the fact that Flight Gear is is a free open source project, with which, people can pretty much do as they please.The sim is actually fairly good, and it looks sort of similar to what Fly! looked like if you ever had that, with a menu interface that is reminiscent of X-Plane. I would hesitate to say Flight Gear (or indeed the somewhat cheeky clone of it that is FlightProsim) is a rival to FS or X-Plane, but then again, that isn't really its purpose, which is to provide a fairly decent flight simulator that people can freely mess about with, without breaking any EULAS. Unfortunately, that ability to mess around with it and do as one pleases, was enough to convince some types to come up with the notion of renaming it and attempting to pass it off as their own original flight simulation product by making little or no mention of the fact that it was basically the same thing as Flight Gear. But then again, that's the kind of thing that happens on the net.If you are curious, do a search for Flight Gear and check it out (you can download it at no cost).Al[/quoteThe thing I don't understand, is why did they (or anybody) want to develop it under a GPL license, when they could have just made it a regular freeware license and maintain all the rights to it. It's like they gave away the store, allowing others to walk right over them legally.

The thing I don't understand, is why did they (or anybody) want to develop it under a GPL license, when they could have just made it a regular freeware license and maintain all the rights to it. It's like they gave away the store, allowing others to walk right over them legally.

GPL allows for anyone to modify it. There is no normal Freeware license option for Open Source software. If I were them however I would have gone with LGPL so it could be used to kill this kind of behavior in it's tracks. LGPL is essentially GPL except designed to allow for limitations. I personally am subscribed to the FlightGear mailing lists, and you should see some of the conversations they have about this specific person and his repeated efforts to box and sell FlightGear. (Yes he has done it before several times.)

FlightProSim is a slightly old version of the free open source flight simulator, Flight Gear, and about the only difference between the two is that the people selling FlightProSim have changed the name of it and decided to charge money for providing it. That might be an immoral act (at least in my opinion it is) but it is not an illegal one, by virtue of the fact that Flight Gear is is a free open source project, with which, people can pretty much do as they please..................

That's pretty much it - If you're curios, try the open source Flight Gear ( http://www.flightgear.org ) and forget about FlightProSim.

Yup, unfortunately, most of us trusting souls probably like to think that we aviation enthusiasts who like flight sims are one big happy family in which nobody is devious. Sadly, the internet demonstrates that is not so, providing as it does access to the entire spectrum of humanity, and that includes the scumbags who would take advantage of that trust.Al

The preamble to the GPL is quite clear:When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for them if you wish), There's nothing illegal, or even immoral, in relying on the terms of freely-granted licence. Flight Gear can't really complain, it chose that licence itself.

The preamble to the GPL is quite clear:When we speak of free software, we are referring to freedom, not price. Our General Public Licenses are designed to make sure that you have the freedom to distribute copies of free software (and charge for them if you wish), There's nothing illegal, or even immoral, in relying on the terms of freely-granted licence. Flight Gear can't really complain, it chose that licence itself.

Its not illegal, but its certanly immoral and exploitative in the way it has been done by FrightProSim.

There's nothing illegal, or even immoral, in relying on the terms of freely-granted licence. Flight Gear can't really complain, it chose that licence itself.

However, in my opinion, there absolutely is something immoral about misleading people into paying for a product that can be (and was intended to be) had for free. That they changed the name of the product, to disguise that fact, is evidence enough that they were well aware of the dubious nature of what was being done.So yes, it was not illegal, but would you want to number among your friends someone who thought it was okay to do that sort of thing? I know I wouldn't.Al

In all honesty, you're better off downloading the GIT of FlightGear and just compiling it from source like I do on a regular basis. (GIT is version control, it's used to distribute the latest bleeding edge source code. More background is available here.)And ya, there are jerks who take advantage of our trust, part of the reason why I sometimes regret using my real name as my login name. As for FlightProSim, it's only basically a reboxing of FGFS in a paid format and changing the name. Because it's only mentioned in passing once or twice on the web page as being FGFS, it's immoral to say the least. I remember a few months ago the FGFS mailing list had a offer from FPS to contribute 200 dollars per month to the dev that makes the most valuable change, an offer to which the FGFS devs politely declined knowing that it would only cause problems.

However, in my opinion, there absolutely is something immoral about misleading people into paying for a product that can be (and was intended to be) had for free. That they changed the name of the product, to disguise that fact, is evidence enough that they were well aware of the dubious nature of what was being done.So yes, it was not illegal, but would you want to number among your friends someone who thought it was okay to do that sort of thing? I know I wouldn't.Al

If a product is released with a licence that allows it to be sold on then there's nothing immoral or unethical about selling it.I have a number of friends how make their living by buying cheap (as cheap as they can) and selling dear (for as much as they can get). That's called business and is how the real world works.

Is there an echo in here? I could swear I remember this exact same debate not long ago.

rightseater, It's just deja-vu, I'm going to stick with FS9 & FSX for now. Besides the panels look less than 2D, just my observation. :(

Is there an echo in here? I could swear I remember this exact same debate not long ago.

Yup, 'mgh' is trying to re-start the old argument regarding this.