vBulletin 4.0 Information from vBulletin.com and Sales Support

[moonbase]

I submitted a support ticket regarding the special 4.0 Suite upgrade (I have a current leased license expiring in March 2010) and have read a bunch of confusing posts about 4.0 and I can say these things:

Basically, if you buy the special for 4.0...it will say for the moment that it expires in 12 months...HOWEVER...vBulliten.com was recently overhauled and the expiration date posted in your member area is a glitch from this new overhaul. So, the date means NOTHING. No need to worry about the expiration date as there will not be one for 4.0...until they run the course with 4.0 and move on to 5.0, which is not even a gleam in their eye. From what I remember, vBullitin versions has run from 2-4+ years, so if you buy the upgrade, you should come out ahead versus the old 12 month leasing system. If we look at the length of other versions...we can gather that 4.0 'should' be around for some time and if you upgrade before October 30th 2009, you will NOT have to lease the 4.0 license ever again (leasing has been discontinued) and renew it every 12 months. This equates to a serious savings over the yearly lease UNLIKE what I keep reading in posts.

With that said, your current program (leased or own) will still be in affect as it was before the sale/release of 4.0 like all licenses have been honored by JelSoft in the past with new version releases.

As for the look and included features, here is some info regarding 4.0 from vBulletin.com:

v

Bulletin 4 Series Development Update
The vBulletin 4 project is progressing quickly and we are in a position to share some further information about what to expect in our next new major version release.

In August, we announced a major overhaul of the code base. Rather than targeting all of these changes in a single, long-term release, we intend to accomplish all the planned improvements over a number of versions. In order to achieve this goal, the largest vBulletin development team ever assembled is now working within an Agile development process, allowing us to deliver new features into your hands faster.

Each incremental release in the vBulletin 4 series will include improvements in features, usability and architecture. Development efforts are prioritized towards those areas that can provide real, tangible benefits to our customers, at all times with an eye toward maintaining and enhancing the performance and reliability expected of a vBulletin product.

The goal of the vBulletin 4 series is to develop a modern, scalable application platform that will allow your communities to thrive.

Key features and improvements that will be included in the first vBulletin 4 release are:

* Cross-content search system providing a single interface to search across forum posts, blog entries and comments and other supported products
* Improved search performance
* A fresh design and layout making use of semantic markup and CSS styling
* An enhanced style and template system to enhance your ability to change the layout
* Controls to assist with the placement of advertising elements
* SEO features, including friendly URLs
* A centralized attachment system, allowing the sharing of attachments across products

Alongside significant strides forward within the vBulletin forum product, we are also producing a new content management system to facilitate the creation, editing and publishing of non-forum pages. Further details about CMS features, and how it will integrate with vBulletin will be posted in due course.

We are working hard and plan to have vBulletin 4.0 released in beta form in early Q2 of 2009.

I want to take this opportunity to thank you for your continuing support of vBulletin. We are really excited about version 4, and we're looking forward to bringing you further updates via general announcements and periodic development blog posts focusing on individual areas.

So, the look (screenshots of 4.0 alpha/beta build) means nothing...it is the core that is important to consider. You can make the look what you want as with all versions of vBulletin. IMO...this is still the safest platform on the market. And in today's web...security is vital.

[Markos]

Originally Posted by moonbase

the largest vBulletin development team ever assembled is now working within an Agile development process, allowing us to deliver new features into your hands faster.

and that's why the sodding pay now so we can pay the developers

[forumevrensel]

If I purshace vbulletin 4 suite, Does it comes with 3.6 3.7 and 3.8 series..?

I mean are we allowed to download and choose one of them?

[Marco van Herwaarden]

As per Discussions on vBulletin 4 and licensing this should be asked at vBulletin.com.