I will just add that unless they changed something in the last 6-8 months since I tested Fireboard again (let's be honest, they merely changed the name and made it J!1.5 native), it used to be an SQL killer, insofar as it took like 200-300+ queries to compile a simple category page.
I used to say: Friends don't let friends drive Fireboard.
I would argue that vBulletin and phpbb3 are perhaps the best forum scripts out there, the former being commercial and the latter being free. Both, however, would require bridging/wrapping/non-integrated solutions.
If you really want an integrated forum extension, I think Agora is hard to beat, but perhaps that's just me. I'll take 30-50 queries vs. 10x that number to compile a page.
SMF recently changed their license, which I'm assuming can now allow a bridge with Joomla?? is this going to have any impact on peoples forum choices I wonder? IMHO SMF is still the best free forum out there, lets hope their troubles are over...
Unless RT can come up with a 1.7+ extension that bridges phpBB to Joomla 1.7+ it is a frowny point for me in maintaining the phpBB Dev club membership.
And yes, I know Roeland is building upon RokBridge himself...but given the history and power of phpBB over any other board it only makes sense to have them joined at the hip.
Thank you, Jason Server #1: 4-Cores @ 2.3Ghz | 8GB RAM | Plesk Control Panel v11.0.9 | Apache/2.2.3-65.el5 | mySQL: 5.5.23 | PHP: 5.3.10 Server #2: 8-Cores @ 2.5Ghz | 16GB RAM | Plesk Control Panel v11.0.9 | Apache/2.2.15-15.el6 | mySQL: 5.5.25 | PHP: 5.4.4