Are There Any Alternatives?

You bet. Microsoft would love you to check out its SharePoint Portal Server, which is sort of similar to PHP-Nuke. IBM has its WebSphere product, which is also similar in terms of functionality. These, however, are enterprise-class solutions. They're designed to be deployed by the IT department of a large corporation, not by your mom. They're also really, really expensive and can cost tens of thousands of dollars to deploy, and may require several dedicated servers. PHP-Nuke doesn't provide the exact same functionality or capability as those commercial solutions, but it's free and can run on a cheap Web server. PHP-Nuke is perfect for everything from an internal departmental or workgroup Web site, or for your own personal Web site.

Now, keep in mind that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. The success of PHP-Nuke has spawned literally dozens of imitators, not to mention derivative products, most of which are, like PHP-Nuke, free. Some of these were created to fill what their authors perceived as holes in PHP-Nuke's functionality. Some were created because their authors didn't like PHP-Nuke's author. Some were created to merge PHP-Nuke with another piece of software. You're welcome to check out these things; some of them do fill some specific needs. I've found PHP-Nuke to be just about perfect for most anything, though, which is, of course, why I wrote this book. Some of the PHP-Nuke competitors include these:

• PostNuke, which is available at www.postnuke.com This is built along roughly the same lines as PHP-Nuke and does roughly the same things. There's more community support for PHP-Nuke, meaning you'll find more folks writing add-ins and offering help and advice.

• NSN-Nuke, from www.nukescripts.net These folks actually make a lot of add-ins and tweaks for PHP-Nuke; NSN-Nuke seems to be a version of PHP-Nuke that incorporates all of their scripts. I'm not really clear on the benefits of NSN-Nuke over PHP-Nuke, though.

• OSC2Nuke, which lives at www.osc2nuke.biz This is a merging of PHP-Nuke with the popular osCommerce software, which enables you to create online stores and shops.

There are certainly others. The differences between them are often as clear as the differences between German sports cars, which is to say that people get really excited about the product they like and really upset with people who like other products. Me, I'm happy with PHP-Nuke, and I'm betting you'll be pretty happy with it, too.