Saitek Cyborg 3D joystick: (real experience)
On a Mac: (mine) Plug it in and launch X-Plane. Enjoy your flight.
On Windows: (a friend's) Plug it in and launch X-Plane. Note that the joystick is not recognised. Put in the driver CD and be forced to listen to crappy music and watch some 1 minute flash demo about how good this software is. Watch the installer crash half way through the install. Restart and repeat. Try again and it works. Launch X-Plane and watch as the system BSODs. Restart and it BSODs again. Swap the joystick and the keyboard USB plugs. It works!? Fly for a few hours, but the joystick is slightly laggy. Unplug the keyboard and mouse, and it's fixed... but no keyboard/mouse.
Have someone cause another BSOD by tripping over the joystick cable, ripping it out of the sockey. Plug it back in and restart. Continue flying. Then unplug the joystick. Start up the machine later and it BSODed. Remove the drivers in safe mode. Then repeat this process next time you want to use the joystick. Oh, and apologise to the friend who'se computer you had to do this all on.