Tarm: Yeah I've been wanting to try Freelancer for years. Missed it when it was new and I don't want to buy a used copy. I wish GOG would sell it.
Bought a used copy on eBay a while ago, personally I don't get why this game gets so much praise for, the presentation is very good I have to give credit to that, but the gameplay is rather meh and can't hold a candle to Privateer IMO, trading is discouraging because doing missions is far more profitable and the combat isn't that great either, it's the Diablo equivalent of spacecombat.
Because I got bored with Elite: Dangerous I got playing X:BtF (again), bought it here with the sale though I owned it on cdrom since forever. I suggest to look up some starterguides on the internet because the manual is pretty sparse, like I didn't know you could set up factories in the first game, I always thought that was only in the later ones.
All in all I'm having a good time with this game at the moment. However it really focusses on economy because combat is laughably bad in this one, even worse than Freelancer if you can believe it.
You probably already have done this but if you haven't check out I-War 2 as well, it's pretty good, and has the best shipcustomization I've ever seen and also the combat is very rewarding.