What did Ubuntu use to write these awsome forums?

[apauna]

Hello

In my day job as a software engineer/support expert I find that the format and layout of these forums would be very helpful. I really like how well the message editor is structured and would like to create a web server with this forum in it for our software.

This forum blows the socks off some of the commercial package's out there and I have always like to learn new things. I have tried some open source FAQs that use php and mysql and find they come close to this forum, but nothing quite as cool as this page.

Is it php based?
Is it Open source?
Does it use a DB such as mysql to store data?

Thanks,
Al

[bapoumba]

Moved to "Forum Feedback & Help".
ubuntuforums run on Vbulletin, please see the license at the bottom of the page.

[matthew]

This is a pretty stock, current vBulletin forum on the back end with a few plugins. As you probably know, it is PHP/MySQL based.

The style and look are completely custom and we have ubuntu-geek, the main admin and Forums Council chairman, to thank for that.

[apauna]

Thanks bapoumba and matthew for the quick response!

I will look into vBulletin, this stuff is great!:)

[aysiu]

vBulletin is not open source, by the way.

[matthew]

vBulletin is not open source, by the way.Actually, if you pay for the license, the source is available to you and can be modified at will.

What will trip some people up is that it is not free, both in the sense that it is commercial software that must be paid for, and also in the sense that it is not licensed freely for open distribution of the source code.

[Nano Geek]

Actually, if you pay for the license, the source is available to you and can be modified at will.

What will trip some people up is that it is not free, both in the sense that it is commercial software that must be paid for, and also in the sense that it is not licensed freely for open distribution of the source code.It seems like it would be next to impossible then to keep people from distributing it for free.

[matthew]

It seems like it would be next to impossible then to keep people from distributing it for free.Doing so would be illegal and the person could be sued. Granted, it is a bit of an honor system, but the overwhelming majority of vBulletin users that I am aware of appreciate the quality of the software and are thrilled to pay for its continued development while being thankful for access to the source code as an end user. You really don't hear much about code being leaked out, etc.

[Nano Geek]

Doing so would be illegal and the person could be sued. Granted, it is a bit of an honor system, but the overwhelming majority of vBulletin users that I am aware of appreciate the quality of the software and are thrilled to pay for its continued development while being thankful for access to the source code as an end user. You really don't hear much about code being leaked out, etc.That's good then.

[hyper_ch]

and there's also vbhacks which is a repository of an aweful lot of modifications avaialble for vb. thx to the source being open and people submiting their addons vB is really excellent software. Also it does not have such a long "known-to-be-hackable" history as some other FOSS BBs have.

As far as I know there has not been any major hack incident with vB...

[ezsurfer]

maybe out of line but Vb when initailly released, made commercial BB software affordable.

That also spoke worlds for keeping a product from being back channeled. When you get licensed great software that works for a fair price, most honor the license.

[LaRoza]

When you get licensed great software that works for a fair price, most honor the license.

Exactly.

[hyper_ch]

well, I've donated to a few projects that I like and use...