If you're willing to settle for a ppruner missing the two p's, here's my take on it:
All of them are crap. But, as a lot of other thing, they are more or less crap. I've had a bunch of them (no Microsoft ones, so I can't say anything about them), but looking back the best one was the Saitek X36. If you want one with a little more buttons and stuff, it's the best for its price. They don't make them any more, but if you're lucky, you can find one of those. The followers, X45 and X52, are more crap, with the latter being less crappy. I guess the X52 is sort of a good buy now, being that the competition isn't all that great. I think it's too sloppy, mine gathers dust. If you want something less bulky, less buttons and such, I can't help you, I haven't tried all that many, and I didn't like the ones I tried. If you for some reason feel the need to throw money away, I'd recommend a Thrustmaster Cougar with a force mod. Then it becomes more like the F-16 side stick it aims to replicate, in that it doesn't move much at all when you jerk it around. I find it actually works great with helicopters too, contrary to all (or most) reason.
All IM very HO.