FlightGear Flight Simulator

This is a piece of software that someone would expect to pay a significant amount of money for (the Microsoft equivalent is priced at something like $140). In addition to the main application, there are a significant number of add-ons available including different aircraft and scenery. The degree of customization this software allows the user goes beyond anything I have seen in any other flight simulator. There seems to be a very dedicated group of developers behind this project because it was very easy to find documentation, tutorials, and other resources.

I initially tried FlightGear out on my laptop while previewing different applications, and quickly discovered that it's a hog when it comes to system resources. Despite not having a laptop made for games of high-intensity graphics, however, the program still ran pretty smoothly. Playing with just the keyboard quickly proved to a pain, and I found that hooking up my relatively inexpensive ThrustMaster (X-Flight) joystick provided a much more enjoyable experience. I'm not sure if FlightGear is everything that X-Plane is, although I haven't messed around with it enough yet to tell; so far the two seem to have different strengths and weaknesses. For a free piece of software, however, this is quite impressive!