[Kopachris]

Logitech Freedom 2.4.  Wireless, has FFB capability, but you can use it without force feedback.  Not sure if it works with Linux because I haven't tried.  (I wonder if you can use other-than-wireless drivers with ndiswrapper...)  Nice joystick.  I think it's around $50 bucks.

[Mischief Maker]

Honestly, I've gone through so many $40-50 sticks (usually by logitech) that I would have saved money in the long run by just plunking down $80 for my CH stick.  I am convinced everything logitech makes, especially game controllers, has a 6-month to one-year planned obsolescence.

That said, I was able to get some halfway decent play out of a wired Xbox 360 controller playing Freespace 2.  The awkward part was pressing the "flightstick" for throttle bursts.

[colecampbell666]

Honestly, I've gone through so many $40-50 sticks (usually by logitech) that I would have saved money in the long run by just plunking down $80 for my CH stick.  I am convinced everything logitech makes, especially game controllers, has a 6-month to one-year planned obsolescence.

My keyboards/mice have all been exceptionally good, but I have had the same saga unfold with joysticks as you.

[Silent Warrior]

I'm still using the Logitech wireless iTouch keyboard I bought last millennium, and it's still going strong. Though decidedly mucky... and the accompanying mouse is 100% dead. Even deader than the left-overs of the zombies in the Sigil Mortuary in PS:T after a zombie-hating berserker goes bonkers with TWO Clubs of Disruption +3 (a pack o' deaders in a pretty much 'dead' game that aims at dying, jig?). D-E-A-D. I also had to replace the receiver a few years back.

Anyway, I got impatient and got that Extreme 3D-thing. You guys provided me with a Monkey Island-like experience, though, and that isn't half-bad. It has almost as heavy centering-solution as the X45, actually, but more rubbery and forgiving. ... Um... Well, it's rather nice in Falcon 4, anyway. I tested it in Knights of the Old Republic (HA! I bet you did NOT see THAT one coming!) too and found it likable. A pity chaos broke out the second time I tried to use it in that game. (Keyboard or gamepad is more ergonomic in that case, anyway.)

Resolve: A stick that I can lift and tilt 90 degrees while the stick remains in the center-position all the time without FFB-augmentation is to be considered largely too strong in the centering to be practical.