My client and I are considering DNN for a portal application. I've had some experience with another company's modified I Buy Spy portal application which I found to be somewhat slow. Since I haven't worked with DNN before, I have some newbie questions:

• Does DNN have performance problems due to its inherent architecture? 
• How long does it take to get a new DNN up and running? I don't mean the minimum time to get something working but how long to understand the capabilities and functions and to configure / customize DNN for a particular web site's look, feel, services, etc.
• Has anyone used the DotNetNuke Subscription Program for support and if so, their experience (pro or con) with it?

Thank you in advance.

Hello
Here are some answers for you based on my experience - I agree with the previous post too though :) ...

• Does DNN have performance problems due to its inherent architecture? Its only a problem if you don't spend some time streamlining your installation. I largely ignored good maintenance and housekeeping issues until different processes ground my site to a halt. Now I am diligent about squeezing every ounce of performance possible out of my site. I keep a constant eye on how changes I am making are affecting performance (good and bad). It becomes an ongoig practice. That said, you can make your site pretty fast, but never as fast as a flat html site. The tweeks are different for every one but there are lots of good resources like mitch seller's web site.
• How long does it take to get a new DNN up and running? I don't mean the minimum time to get something working but how long to understand the capabilities and functions and to configure / customize DNN for a particular web site's look, feel, services, etc. To get our whole site up and running (20 skins, 800 pages, about 1900 module instances, 3000 pdfs, utilizing about 20 different modules some custom) took about 7 months. Myself performing about 80% of the work with no prior knowledge of DNN and limited programming experience. I could have cut that time in half probably if I didn't have other web sites to maintain.
• Has anyone used the DotNetNuke Subscription Program for support and if so, their experience (pro or con) with it? I use Venexus.com support for emergencies (only had one so far). They are extremely knowledgeable about dnn and I like dealing with them. I have heard good things from several support groups out there though. They are all priced about the same. Primarily I use the forums, books and other web sites though.

Hope that helps, Mike

Mike's pretty much dead on from my experience.  I'm five months into what will probably be a six or seven month process of converting our current site and adding new features.  Not much different from Mike's setup except fewer pages and a lot more PDF/Word documents.  Plus I have to train maintainers for the site.  Mine could have been three or four months, but I have DNN experience and didn't need to custom program as much as I did.  I also don't get to do this full time, more like 8 hours a week.  Much more over the next two months though.  :)

I'll probably have about 500 hours in when it gets signed off as done.  For personal clients, I've had as few as 10 hours into a site, but they're really quite simple sites.

Jeff