I give, what's the real difference?  It seems like mission-building might distinguish pro and academic, but it seems a bit cryptic.   Any ideas?

I too am not 100% sure about this, but the way it looks goes like this......

 

Under law, you're not supposed to buy it for the purpose that we FSX simmers will be using it for (entertainment). They are not selling it for that purpose.

 

That being said the Academic License seems to be the one to Purchase ($59.95). After all we are "student" pilots using it to further our flight instruction.

 

Again, I really do not know either but this is the info I have gathered so far.

Ask Lockheed.. Seriously.  No one here can give you a right answer because everyone here has their own interpretation of what to use and the thread will end up 30 pages of conflicting wrong information and egos..  

 

Plus, this falls under EULA talk which is forbidden here.. 

The important thing is to not have fun while you use it, then you are covered by them all.

I believe that there is a 'simulation' appropriate licence, so if you are only simulating having fun, you're all good. ;-)

 

Disclaimer... I've not investigated the issue at all and hold no opinion, 'fact' based or otherwise.

The Professional license for 199 bucks is the regular license that most people will have to get: it's the license for everyone who wants to simulate flying which is what most of us want to do. The academic license, which comes with a huge discount, is for those lucky youngsters who are an undergraduate or K-12 student. It's that simple! Both licenses will give you the EXACT same sim, but the academic version will have a small watermark in the top right corner (stating you are using the academic version). 

Ask Lockheed.. (...)

 

 

LM and the P3D people will direct you to the table displaying licence and intention of use combinations (the table with all the red crosses when it comes to entertainment purposes), worked out by LM's legal advisors.

 

You're out on a limb, m8 ...

Got Academic, more approprite for my bugget.

who are an undergraduate or K-12 student.

And if I've understood correctly, undergraduate in US means people pursuing bachelor's degree. In some countries, undergraduate has very different meaning. I'm studying an equivalent degree in my country (my second degree actually, I'm not that young anymore ) and have qualified for example Dreamspark and other academic software licenses, free or discounted, through my school. It would make things easy, if LM would use email authentication for academic license. Unfortunate thing for that is, that in many cases it may rule foreign students out. For example, that applies to VMWare store, where academic discount apply to students in US instituitions only. I have about 6 months free academic license for VMWare Workstation 10 through my school, but I'm not able to purchase discounted academic version without license expiring period as their method of checking the eligibility applies to US only. For Dreamspark and some other academic programs, I can login through my schools website and for example Microsoft Store accepts email authentication nicely for academic license purchases. So it can be done, but requires some work, of course. Good thing is, that in that way confusion about eligibility can be avoided.

 

 

The academic license, which comes with a huge discount, is for those lucky youngsters who are an undergraduate or K-12 student.

 

No - it's for those schools or colleges teaching them.

I took the plunge and did the Pro one.  I guess the argument would be similar for academic versions of Office.  I was wondering if there are any differences in the software and I assume as w/ Office there isn't.  Thanks  y'all!

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