Depens on what items you selected to download and how good your connection is. The full set is >3GB (possibly even >4), so it will take some time.

Gah, if that ever gets released I'll never get anything else done.

I've start FS1 compain with FSOpen.
It was installed with Turey's installer.
The Problem:
1. On some TRAINING missions not everything cool, as example noone shoot the missle in my direction, they just says "prepare" and after "complete"... Like some scripts are not working.
2. Wings (ships)... When I give them orders as «Disable or Disarm my target» all what they doing is nothing. Sometimes after 20-30 of hitting the same command one of them start to fly to the correct sub-system and shooting 2-3 times and stops. The only things they are react good is to «DESTROY my target». How to fix it?
Many thanks in advance.

Meanwhile FS Open 3.6.10 RC2 was released....

I just installed FS2Open the other day and it was quite simple.
Just use this guide here (Turey's installer sucks):
[url=]http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,47640.0.html[/url]

Nice, I have to try it :-).

A bit late, perhaps, but FSO 3.6.10 RC3 is available: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,63492.0.html . Installation is simple as usual: download, extract the .exe files to your \freespace2\ folder, use the Launcher to select fs2_open_3_6_10_RC3.exe, boom, that's it.

Pardon the double-post, but FSO 3.6.10 Final has been released: http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,64520.0.html . Go and get it to achieve the most satisfying and bug-free FreeSpace 2 Open experience!

I tried it and must sai it's gr8. What now important to me it runs on Win 7 64bit too :-)

3.6.10 FINAL installers available here:
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php/topic,64634.0.html
hip63

Is there a cockpit mod for Freespace 2? I doubt there is, but for now that's the only thing I think I need to enjoy this game further.

Cockpits can be (and have been) included in certain user-made models, some of which are higher-poly versions of the ships used in the original games. Enabling them requires editing the ships.tbl. All of this requires a certain amount of modding knowledge. The best place to get some is Hard Light Productions.

I have to say that I am thoroughly impressed with FSO. I briefly tried to play the original game and experienced bad lagging issues. Then upgraded to FSO and not only did the lag issues go away -- knock on wood -- but the game looks SO MUCH BETTER! :)

Just to keep things alive here. A new, revamped and fully voice-acted version of Blue Planet was released today. BP is one of the most popular mods among FS fans, and this new version knocks it up another notch. Bam!
Blue Planet: Age of Aquarius - The Director's Cut is available at http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=68213.0 .
Note that Blue Planet requires FreeSpace Open! If you don't have it yet, install it with any of the methods described at http://www.hard-light.net/wiki/index.php/Getting_started#Installing_FreeSpace_Open .

I'm currently playing it, and it's really awesome ! Professional quality voice-acting and cutscenes (using the game's engine), great scenario so far... besides, the new ships are really well designed and coherent with the Freespace universe, and the skyboxes just look gorgeous.
On the minus side, this campaign is pretty difficult, particularly the mission Forced Entry : fortunately, there is an online walkthrough with useful strategies for this mission. Once you know what to do, it is great, but you'll have to fail a few times before succeeding since this mission requires a lot of anticipation.
In other words : if you haven't played this campaign yet, go download it now, it's an order pilot !