I had posted this in Pre-Sales questions, but only got one response.

Hi!  Let me start with the fact that I'm new to all this, but eager to learn.

I'm have a PHPNuke template for a new forum home page. I was going to use vBulletin, which apparently is not compatible with PHP. In looking for an alternative I found Lunarpages with a link to SMF (thank you very much). However, in my search I came across the following and I'm wondering if it is a real concern?

Actually, PHP-Nuke can be installed via Fantastico still. They simply make you pay for the latest version and Fantastico installs the one before that. However, we have it disabled because of Nuke's *extremely* poor track record for security. You can install it on your own, but we don't want to encourage it.

One person suggested (Joomla?!?) as an option, but wouldn't that mean rewriting the PHPNuke template from scratch?

it depends on which nuke you use. nuke evolution and phpnuke platinum are rock solid with sentry in place. I used phpbb and had a million hackers,spammers. I have 65 site 55 are phpnukeplatinum with video ,music,games etc. try going to http://learnphpnuke.com and http://phpnukepro.com. Havent been hacked yet, they try and get banned immediatly.
plus it beats this flat sheet look.