It's quite amazing how many users know nothing of the free side of the delights of flight simming.I sold a whole bunch of flight titles about a year ago on ebay, and got chatting to all the purchasers by email. Every single purchaser had never realised you could download free aircraft from the net!It's a shame Microsoft don't 'market' this side more, as it really hooked the guys who bought from me, and if you get them hooked on free add-ons they'll go for a payware add-on eventually, and buy the next FS version. I pointed them to AVSIM first of course!Graeme

Without Microsoft we would only have Apple computers and Intel and AMD would probably not exsist therefore OSs such as Linux probably would not exsist either. SunOS would most likely be the defacto standard for server systems along with UNIX running on SPARC or PowerPC platforms. All of the "other" platforms are VERY, VERY expensive and out of reach of most people. Even base Apple computers are two and three times the price of a starter WinTel box.At the end of the day, since there are no true rivals to Microsoft Windows in shear global usage (90%+), and there is no reason to believe that if Microsoft didn't exsist a "better" general operating system would have florished in its place, the conclusion is correct.Most homes would NOT have a PC. FS would probably be running on an Apple OS and not enjoy the vast WinTel based popularity on which it rides (within reason of course). It is reasonable to believe that the community as it is today would be much smaller. It is even safe to extrapolate that FS would have died out long ago on the Apple Platform (limited saturation) unless it was ported over to a video game system...in which case, no matter how you slice it, things would be MUCH different than they are today.SO, thanks William, you done good!CYA,Mike T.

>>In fact, without Microsoft 90%+ of us would not have a>>computer.>>That's completely inaccurate. We would still have computers,>but we would be using completely different software.>LOL! Thank you for that. Yes, 90% seems a bit high, but who are we to say what things would be like now? Reminds my of a quote by the late, great, Douglas Adams."The idea that Bill Gates has appeared like a knight in shining armour to lead all customers out of a mire of technological chaos neatly ignores the fact that it was he who, by peddling second-rate technology, led them into it in the first place."Microsoft just bought the original company all those years ago, like it did everything else. I wonder what things would be like if that didn't happen. Maybe X-plane would dominate the market, of Fly! perhaps?What we have now is pretty good though. And it can only get better! :-)

Marco,You assumption of how many copies of MSFS is based on the LDS is way off. MSFS is bought by far too many folks that have no idea about add-ons. Next LDS is a great add-on, but the PMDG numbers may shock you. However to base MSFS numbers on any add-on is a very flawed technique.As many have said, NO company and that does include MS, will NOT divulge their sales numbers, just not good business for anyone.Having said that you can bet that MS has sold millions of copies of FS and FS9 has been a leader in that number. MS has been quoted before in some trade journal as having sold millions.Bob

I think microsoft should include a small booklet listing the top online websites such as avsim for where you can go to get add-ons. Because, like Bob and others have said, most people buy the game, play it for a bit, but don't have any idea about the big community out there who have made this game so much better!

>Marco,>>You assumption of how many copies of MSFS is based on the LDS>is way off.There's been a misunderstanding, my 7.000-11.000 figures were referred to a top-selling (aircraft) add-on, not total MSFS sales! I know it sells million of copies :)>Next LDS is a great add-on, but the PMDG>numbers may shock you.Agree, probably PMDG numbers are significantly higher than Level-D, but I think they're however in the range of (maybe several) tens of thousands (for a single add-on, of course). As I said, I presume scenery add-ons sell even higher volumes.Bye! :)Marco

Just a question: since flying MSFS 2002 for a couple years, on and off...and from what I read of the WONDERS of fs 2004 (hype?)....where is the best ONLINE source to purchase ms 2004?Sadly, when I went to amazon.com and ordered it...due to the fact that I have an overseas american apo address, they couldnt ship itEngland charges two times as much. Any reliable American outlets which seell 2004?Lee K