I thought I'd just stick my two pence in~
8.1 is great, very solid and now (took long enough) on all the numerous systems I own that are in regular use (some are broken lol).
Anyway, about LFS, DX9 is fine. Yes, it's a little older (okay a lot older) but it's programming so it doesn't affect things quite the same way as if it was a piece of hardware from the same year. I understand Scawen for wanting to use a version of DX on a system that gives him a debug. I could suggest a VM but I realise this just doesn't give accurate enough results being that it is emulated hardware more or less and really not a great idea when he wants to know how it runs on native hardware.
Realistically, everyone is entitled to their own opinion and many need to learn this. If Scawen (and anyone else) wishes to use XP/DX9 and understands the risks (and benefits yes in DX9's case) then that's totally fine!
All I wish for is for LFS to live on with more work done to it. I view LFS as an ongoing project, this isn't a standard crappy game, it's a simulator with a LOT of hard work and love poured into it with a metric ton of brain grease from Scawen (and the others when they were still around).
@Scawen: If you see this, please, please, please give people a reason to stick around. I'm not moaning or raging. I'm just very sad after looking at the server list today and seeing barely two dozen servers, half of which have one or two people on. If you do give us a decent patch at some point this year I for one am FULLY willing to actually pay you the cost of another upgrade ticket for it (or two if it's larger), purely because I appreciate your work (and because LFS is literally THE reason I bought a DFGT and then spent £220 on a G27 setup barely 6 months later).
Regardless, I shall return to racing & cruising in my LX6 *cough* Caterham SuperSeven *cough* end of May when I finish this year of university so I wish you all good racing in the time being.
Rambler out!