I got a Freedom as my first plane and taught myself on it with the help of FMS and Realflight G2. I can recommend the Freedom but I should tell you not to worry at all about ACT, as far as i could tell, it was just dual rates, meaning it made the controls less sensitive.

i'm an advocate of the firebird lines of planes especially if you're not sure you'll stay in the hobby. everyone in these forums will say get the slow stick, and it's a good investment....if you plan on staying. the thing is, you won't get the opinion of the people that wasted money investing and lost interest soon after...(because those people won't be found on rc forums if rc isn't their thing).

As for the wind, you need to learn to fly in dead calm anyways to get a proper feel for it. I don't know much about the commander, but the freedom is a good plane to learn on. for either of them i would recommend you hold back a little on the aerobatics. these planes are meant for stable flight and the only times i even crashed my Freedom was doing stupid stunts.

once you get bored cruisin around in your first plane it's time to get a new one anyways.