Does the Flightgear project use (or plan to use) OpenStreetmap data for its roadways? OpenStreetmap seems like such a feasible project from which to build a complete open source replica of the living, breathing world, it seems only fitting that Flightgear would strive to use it's data. I've spend a heck of a lot of time in my local area making sure that it's not only as good as, but more accurate than, Google and Bing maps. It would be neat to see that replicated in a Flight Sim world. Extra kudos if FlightGear could be turned into more of a world simulator that would allow cars to be driven down the roads, etc. I'm excited to see this direction in X-Plane being taken for the next version.
Also, it seems to me that it's somewhat difficult to get a consistent user experience across platforms. I may be asking for a lambasting by CLI diehards for asking this, but is there perhaps a consistent user interface that will at some point be packaged with the program that will allow the creation of flights, perhaps flight planning utilities, and the management of scenery areas installed into the sim? I'm thinking something that doesn't require the user to run a separate program to configure and set up a flight. Such a unified interface would probably make FlightGear seem much more cohesive, as well as increase the quality of branding for the project. (Says the joker that has no programming or interface design skills. :-/) On Ubuntu in particular (with its focus on usability and less on the command line) it's easy to install FlightGear from the repos, but more difficult to figure out how to add more scenery to it. On that note, does anyone know why Ubuntu still has the older 1.9 version available?
I'm hoping for a new general public release in early 2011 that showcases the advancements you guys have put into the sim over the last year! I'm not much of a build-from-source kind of person.