I did an apt-get install of flightgear - first of all, its a HUGE download, somewhere in the size of 3/4 GB, and after installing, it runs...

It may be my system, but it runs slow, and I've got a 1.4 GHz AMD, with a 8x NVidia card - but, I think the "game" itself, is comparable to what M$ is shipping under the name "Flight Simulator". The controls would probably be "excellent" if I had a "flight" input device, but using the mouse wasnt that difficult. I managed to taxi to runway, lift-off, and then crash into the ocean. ( with a few "straight up" climbs, resulting in engine stalls. ) I havent figured out where you can set environments, locations, and times at... So, I was "who-knows-where" and in the dark, and I think the plane was a cessna, "prop-job". I tend to do a apt-cache search for action, or arcade games, at least once a week, to see if anything is new, or excitting out in the world, and this was my first attempt at "simulations" - Sometimes, you just got to get in a plane, and crash a few times

The cockpit "looks", to my "untrained eye", to be quite authentic, lots of dials, controls, switches, levels, etc... and the "HUD" ( Heads Up Display ) looked good. Now, if I can find out where the "settings" are, maybe a nice LearJet, or something on the "edge", like a "sound-breaker" plane, is next to be in line ??? Nothing more fun than to fly faster than the speed of sound, and then crash [giggle] - ( warning - bad 9/11 thought follows ) Maybe I can load a scenery of N.Y. and go after the twin towers, or something ?

Anyone have any good flight simulator games that they have tried - maybe something a little less "authentic" and a little more "foregiving" of a newbie Aeronatical clutz ??? [giggle]