Looking at these screenshots makes me appreciate how far we've come with Flight Simulator. A Big thanks is in order to Microsoft for hanging in their this long to bring FS9 where it is today

Yep I AgreeThanks MS, But please please, Make the FS2004 just that little more stable, i.e Seasonal CTD which is still here, although not as bad its still looming around.Jason

Well the difference is that these guys make the sim for fun. MS is just in it for the money (last time I checked, FS9 was still one of their best-selling games). Also Flightgear is a lot more flexible from what I've heard. But it sure does look like shite! :D

Personally I hope they continue to make loads of money off it if it means making the product better for me.Flightgear looks to me, compared to fs9 - very promising - has an fs98 look to it - I'm sure that it too will only get better. I'm pretty sure that if I ever download and run it I could get immersed anyway - sims have a way of doing that.regards,Mark3.2HT/1GIG/X700pro256

I'm very happy that FS9 is their bestseller and I wish MS to earn tons of money on it. That's why we can enjoy the best flight simulator in the world and why we can make sure there will be another FS x in the future.

So Jimmi you have it on personal authority that the guys making FS are in it just for the money? Funny, FS looks pretty darn good if they don't care about the product. Or maybe because it is so good is the reason why it's a best-seller.Todd

Well, as a company they are. The team like their job, but I doubt they'd continue making the product in their own time if Microsoft were to pull their paychecks...And I don't care. A company like Microsoft has the ability to invest millions in a product and make it great.Besides, I write software for a living myself. I too like my job but I'm pragmatic enough that I realise that were I to have to do something else I'd probably no longer be able to write software on any large scale due to time and resource constraints.

Thank a company for an addiction I can't break??? :DCount me in. :-wave Thanks Microsoft

Yes - I know lots of people who absolutely love their job, but I know of noone who loves his job so much that he would do it for free. Well, maybe if you fly Beavers in Alaska :-lol

I love my job enough I might do it for free if I didn't need the income.I think there's a lot of people in creative arts (which software engineering borders on, being IMO a cross between art and science) who feel that way, in part because a lot of people in the arts have turned hobbies into professions at some point in their careers.

Great job MS. It is as real as it gets just make it better. Bullet proofJimCYWG