Hi,

Windows doesn't come with a 'demo', neither do about 95% of the
packages in use today.

I would say most of them do. Windows doesn't but that is not a fair
comparison as a) no-one buys Windows or tries to make an informed
choice as to what it's worth and b) what would you demo it on? There
_are_ time-limited preview-versions of Windows however, you could
call those demos (of future features).

Condors competition is available for evaluation. As is other soaring
related software like SeeYou and StrePla. Most PC games have demos, many
of them are even released ahead of the full product.

Of all the surviving flight simulators for PCs those from Microsoft
have long been the only ones that could not be evaluated beforehand.
Now joined by Condor.

Condor costs a few quid less than an Xbox or PS2 game

It sure is not expensive but if it doesn't run on my machine even a
single Euro is too much. I have some custom hardware that needs to be
supported so I can enjoy a simulation and there is no way for me to
find out without a demo. The condor people told me it will work, but
how can _they_ tell?

All XBoxes are created equal, the hardware is well known, so showing
customers a video or screenshots tells them what they will be getting.
Not so for PCs. You don't even know whether the program will run at
all, and if it does what it feels like.

Personally, as a paying customer, I'd like to see the Condor
development team staying focussed on reacting to the very active forum
requests and comments rather than putting out a demo so some skinflint
glider pilots can try to hack their work.

It is going to be hacked anyway, that is a sad but nonetheless true fact.
So instead of installing a demo today and buying the program tomorrow
I will have to wait until something downloadable pops up.

I respect the decision made by the condor team, it's their baby. But I
think the decision is wrong. I further think that the reason given is
bogus. Creating a demo does not take more than a few hours at most to
be invested once. Propably the piracy issue is the real reason, but not
having a demo does not help.

Ciao, MM
--
Marian Aldenhövel, Rosenhain 23, 53123 Bonn. +49 228 624013.
http://www.marian-aldenhoevel.de
"What did you expect to see out of a Torquay hotel bedroom window? Sydney
Opera House perhaps? The Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Herds of wildebeest
sweeping majestically across the prairie!" Basil Fawlty