Ok, im on a quest to find "The Best CMS"

I know right of the bat someones going to say "The best CMS is one you right yourself". I agree, although my webprogramming skills are not Uber enough to pull of such a feet.

Currently I am using Phpnuke. I like it because there are SO Many sites around that provided mods, hacks, support, etc. But I feel that the limits of phpnuke are hindering my sites growth.

http://www.XpertsZone.net

Any recommendations for a great CMS with Good forum software included? (phpbb, IPB, or vbulletin are all I really want to use).

Free is a major plus since im not doing this for a "for profit" venture.

Thanks for the help.

Other options you have are...

XOOPS http://www.xoops.org
Drupal http://www.drupal.org

PHPBB is a cult of its own. It has not yet come up with a good portal system, although it is being worked out.

Unfortunately I believe both of them are pretty similar to phpnuke. Drupal, if im thinking of the right CMS was originally a portal designed around phpbb, If I am thinking of the right one then I dont believe that will have the features I require either.

I think Mambo may be slightly better suited but doesnt come with any forum software. I could easily instal a 3rd party but without a DB port people would have to register 2 times, and then login 2 times which I hope is obviously not a good solution.

Any more suggestions?

www.mamboserver.com
www.siteworkspro.com - not free
www.nucleuscms.org

Mambo is, IMO the best CMS out there. The new version that was just released really blows other packages out of the water. Addons and such are a cinch to install. And although it is a CMS, it doesn't have to look like every other CMS out there like phpNuke does.

Throw on another vote for Xoops. Not only is it very user friendly to the noob but even the noob programmer can hack around in it fairly easily. Its the first CMS I have ever written a module for, mainly because it was very easy and the dev community is fantastic about helping. It's also extremely simple to skin.

I whipped up this skin for it in about 3 hours...http://dev.nixpert.com/

Have you tried http://www.opensourcecms.com

Its a great place to try out all the alternatives out there without having to download and install them yourself until you've found the one you like.