[LocutusofBorg]

The increased license-costs are ok IMHO - at least when you earn money with your site.

After all one thing I learned (everyone must make his own experience, but this is how I see
it): When you use professional (and vB IS professional - be it security or functionality,
hands down) application and the support from time to time, it saves money, especially
compared to open source solutions. I have a one-time license fee and thats it. And I have
the right to complain, wake up vB-staff to help me etc

When you have open source solution, you can have luck and have nice and responsible
persons at your site - but it is a matter of trust, a matter of luck and - most important -
a matter of motivation! I saw countless! applications, be it win32, unixoids or webbased
apps that leaved abandoned/orphaned behind and I was the lucky one who fixed that shit
because I was dumb enough to believe anyone would care about them.

Obviously this is not the case with e.g. phpBB - but to be honest, I NEVER wanna miss the
support and attitude to things of vB-staff and before I must shutdown vB and use some
other opensource/free software again at my productive sites - I tend to better lack some
cinema-visits, buy a cheaper whatever or smoke some cigarettes less (anyway good idea
to quit smoking )

I agree that its harder for hobby-admins, although I would use vB even for hobby-sites
before I switch back to phpBB (maybe because I never forget how many countless hours
I spend to fix/add/edit core-files) - everyone who reviewed phpBB code and compared it
to vB-sources must agree - or is blind (imho)

just my 2cent.