MSFS X impressions

I finally got around to installing the copy of MSFS X that's been
sitting on my shelf for about 2 months. I must say I've very
underwhelmed.
First, I would recommend having it installed. I wasted almost an entire
day installing it. The installation is very, very difficult. First,
there are 2 DVDs. I put both into the computer. After about an hour I
noticed it had stopped. It was looking for the 2nd DVD. Apprently both
DVDs must be in the same drive (you must switch) it will not look for
the 2nd DVD.
Then it tries to activate but MS's activiation server does not yet
work. They first had be do a complete uninstall and reinstall. That
look about 3 hours. When that didn't work they had me do a bunch of
stuff to the registry. This is all on a newish higher end Dell computer
with DSL.
Finally MS bounced me around to 6 people on one call until they got me
to someone who said I must do the activation at the same time she
authroizes it. Apparently you can't activate the software w/o being on
the phone.

So after all that I finally brought it up. First, it takes forever to
start. My system is almost twice what MS recommends but it still
requires more than a bathroom break to start. Once its up, I can't see
much difference vs. MS FS 2000. Nothing really seems any different.
I took the Mooney up to spin it. It took awhile but it finally seemed
to enter what appeared to be a spin. However, the airspeed indicator
was bouncing around a lot, as high as 100 mph, not what I'd expect in a
spin. Since no one has ever spun a Mooney more than the one turn the
FAA did I'm not sure what proper behavior is but I'd not expect to gain
airspeed.

So, I probably wouldn't buy it again, but if I did, I'd pay the $50 to
have the Geek guys at BestBuy do the installation professionally. I
easily spent many times that in my time.

-Robert