Hi all,
Thanks so much for your comments. I'd like to comment on some of your statements:
> you will not find anything near the value.
At this point in my life, money is less of an issue than headaches. When I was younger and had more time than money, freeware, open source and the like were wonderful. These days I'll gladly pay thousands up front for a solution which costs me less in headaches, downtime and further development later on.
> The extensibility is the #1 reason why anyone from hard core developer
> to casual personal user would want to get involved.
Two thoughts here:
1. Most everything is extensible -- it's just a matter of how much work it takes.
2. I don't want to get "involved" which I'll explain more about in a sec.
> But before I go on, please sell me on why it would make a
> difference to the DotNetNuke project if you were "convinced".
It wouldn't -- I'm a consumer, not a contributor. The only thing I'd bring to the project is bug reports 
Nina, thanks for the link to the blog -- your detailed response was awesome (no slight to others intended). I think your comment about not being able to get the program to install on machines is VERY relevant.
> You use a product not because every one is using it or they tell
> you how good or bad it is. You use it because it suit your
> requirements, budget or somewhere in the middle.
Maybe that's how you make decisions but that's far from how I make them. I own Honda cars specifically because of how good Consumer Reports and other owners tell me how good they are. I choose software and hardware specifically based on reviews and user experiences. Yes, it has to suit my requirements but there are a TON of products/projects out there which will serve 80% of my requirements and budget so now I just have to choose one which won't cost me a fortune in headaches and development later on.
> With your vast experience in the industry, I do think you should
> have the experience to determine whether to Nuke or Not to Nuke.
Hardly. I may have vast experience in the industry but very little experience with each of the software products I'm reviewing. That's why I'm asking the experts.
> So, if you are finally here - you are not rally
> sure about this simplistic saying.
It's a matter of what you can live with. What I'm not sure of is whether I can live with the unknown issues I'd face if I used DotNetNuke. With a commercial solution, they guarantee their product. With DotNetNuke, nobody guarantees me anything. While the program is free, I'll gladly pay an up front fee to ensure I don't pay over and over again down the road.
Yes, I know there are no real guarantees -- but let's look at this as an analogy. If I buy a Honda car, I know exactly what I'm getting, I have a warranty and I can expect the car to perform exactly like most other Honda's. This is what commercial software is like. Conversely, DotNetNuke is a lot like getting a kit car free. I get all the parts and some instructions but I have to put it together myself and I may invest a lot of time and money only to find the wheels fall off at 50 mph and frankly, nobody cares if I die in the crash.
So why don't I go with commercial software? Simply because I haven't found a solution yet AND DotNetNuke MIGHT be better than all those solutions out there. That's what I'm here to find out and so far, only Rob has really answered that question. We can talk about value all day long but if I die at 50 mph, the money I saved won't be worth anything.
RLyda, I have no clue what the specific problems were. I followed the instructions to install, tried to run a sample page and got an error that made zero sense. At that point I threw in the towel. A month ago a friend of mine who is much more technically savvy than I tried to install DotNetNuke and ran into the same thing and he threw in the towel for the same reasons. Honestly, we both don't have time to futz with a program that you can't even get installed.
Chris -- two days to install DNN? Installers should be better than that! Glad to hear you've figured it out.
Thanks again all!
Ducki