Thanks Arkose, I have been looking at FSO for a long time and finally made the plunge. I'll let you know how it goes.
Kind Regards,
Grizz

yipee! Thanks, FSO is up and running. Seems that I don't have enough vertual memory now. But it runs. Thanks again, Grizz

For those interested there has been an update that fixes some issues with the previous releases.
More information is on the FSO forums here:
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=65038.0

Hi.
I've tried to do as been descibed. So far i've had some luck, some bad luck. Good luck is that I seem to be able to play FS2 with goos quality and nice colours and that.
Bad luck is. I still am unable to play FS1.
What I did was, to install fsport 3.1.1 into FS2 folder and just ran it and i believe i also just installed freespaceopeninstaller in FS2 folder aswell. I den downloaded the maps pack and installed that too in FS2 folder.
My 2nd problem is: Playing FS2 i have good graphic, however, all the ships, container, cargo, seem to have lost their lightning. They are very very dark. What do i do to solve that?

A bit of advice:
THE INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS IN THIS THREAD ARE OUTDATED AND SHOULD NOT BE USED.
Updated installation instructions can be found here:
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=61606.0
Manual install procedure can be found here (WARNING: Assumes basic computer handling skills are present. If you are unsure, use the first link):
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=47640.0
If you have any questions or problems installing or playing with FS2_Open, post them here:
http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?board=151.0
Problems reported here may go unanswered for a long time. On HLP, we pride ourselves on the fact that in 99% of all cases, there will be someone around to address the issue and help you fix it in a matter of minutes.

Here are current installation guides for Windows and Linux written by GOG.com users:

http://www.gog.com/en/forum/freespace_series/quick_and_simple_freespace_2_scp_installation_guide

http://www.gog.com/en/forum/freespace_series/linux_freespace_2_open_freespace