This one's for the people who've already played FS 1 and 2.
Let's say I'm on a tight budget this month and I need to watch the entertainment expenses even if the games here are dirt cheap... Should I get Freespace 1 or Freespace 2 if I don't buy them both? Is it a good idea to have played 1 for the story or is that unimportant? Can Freespace 2 be considered a "2.0" of Freespace 1 or would you really need to play them both for the full experience?

A lot of the back story from 1 is mentioned heavily in 2, so you lose nothing from that. I'd say to get two, since it's a step up graphically, and a little easier to play overall.
Mind you, this is still Beta timing, so you could always buy one and use the beta key to get the other free =)

You can absolutely get away without knowing the story of Freespace 1 when playing 2. It's interesting in it's telling, but just ask and someone here will be happy to ruin it for you so you can play Freespace 2 without getting lost. I'd recommend 2 personally, as someone who's played through both games MANY times it holds up a bit better and it's a little better in what ships it gives you for what missions.

Looking at the freespace open source project, i'd recommend getting 2. I haven't actually played these games but apparently someone has re-made the FS1 missions for FS2 as well as some missions from the expansion pack.

You can get both FS1 and FS2 for $5.99.
I didn't see them being sold separately. If you aren't a Beta subscriber, you'll have to wait another 3 weeks. :)

There's two Freespace games for sale here. Freespace 1+expansion and Freespace 2.
I've bought FS2 and am giving it a shot for the first time. I wasn't really concerned about story when I bought it, but if the open source team did make a FS1 mod with everything, that's be super awesome.

Thanks for the input, everyone; Freespace 2 is my free game. :-)

Yup - get Freespace 2
I have both these games in original boxes - the best Space sim shooters out there, bar none.

I've never played Freespace 1, but number 2 makes many references to some war, probably covered in Freespace 1. I choose Freespace 2 mainly because I wanted the more updated game.

I absolutely don't see why you could not have just got Freespace 1 with the expansion and then Freespace 2 with your coupon and not even bothered asking the question!
Both games are genius, and I would always play forwards not backwards, so would play Freespace 1 then the Freespace 1 expansion then Freespace 2 then all the various total conversion mods like the Battlestar Galactica one.

Because my first game was Shattered Steel. Had to get that one for nostalgia reasons.
Limited resources; you can't have it all. I'm sure FS 1 is great, but that's why I asked if you could reasonably skip it in favor of FS 2 if you had to.

Whoops. My mind was telling me one thing and what I was reading was another. Sorry for the apparent lapse of clarity of mind. :P

As a space sim nut, I agree with this message.