ROFLMAO!

You're a Texan?
NM maybe?

It is a monopoly is so far as there is no commercial competition.

1st FT isn't a commercial product. It doesn't try to be competitive.
2nd If they are in a different market, they are not competition
3rd I could form a company with the same approach as TIR is not patented

4th ....I'm an electrical/mechanical maintenance & tools engineer...what that got to do with it?

Just get the TIR5 if any way financially feasible as its far more idiot proof and plug and play than the 3Pro I used for years .Considering what we spend on graphics cards etc its NOT that dear...

You do not need to run your LED's at max current (as often suggested in Freetrack DIY articles). I run three 1.8V IR LED's at 60% of their max current rating, wired in series and power them using a 4.5V mobile Phone Charger - max current is 70ma (0.07A) and I enjoy perfect tracking. If I were to use the USB 5V supply I would use a series resistor of around 10 ohms.

Considering what it costs me to maintain a motorcycle, occasionally fly real time and what I have spent on music gear, camera gear and road trips to air shows and concerts ... flight sims even with pedals. trackir, joystick/hotas and the occasional computer upgrade is a cheap hobby.

Personally I see the free-track options as something for the handyman electronics hobbyist to play with, a bit like some guys build their own rudder pedals and simpit joysticks. I repair electrical equipment and computers for a living, so I am not that inclined to pull out a soldering iron at home and I happily went out and bought trackir :D

Regardless of how you get access to head tracking, once you get it working properly and have had a few weeks to get the hang of it, you never look back.

Personally i'm not against the cost or the product, what bothers me is how the company act, that want have a monopoly, read the link some posts ago.. you can have an idea of how naturalpoint is.. so i'll never buy a their product...

.. but you clearly use Windows and MS are far worse than natural point even going as far as buying competing products and taking them off the market. :D

I really don't know what some people here have against NaturalPoint?
If i had developed a brought into the market a cash cow like TIR, i would protect it any way i could.
Anybody who thinks that a company willingly accept losses is, imho, a idealistic dreamer.

but i can also choose linux or a mac, no? maybe i use windows only for games?? :)

would you like to drive a car that accept the gas only from a company? or that you can put on only the tyres that they tell you? why should I buy a game where i can use only trackIR and not another competitor? DCS had to remove their support to freetrack because TrackIR said so.... that's why i'm against them...

p.s.
maybe we are going offtopic and probably this is not the right forum where talk about TIR vs. Freetrack and so on... so sorry for this debate..