And they are still trying to make profit with it... I think commercial app defeats the whole purpose of PHP/MySQL which are free and open source.

Anyways, most CMS now are almost the same thing, following the same "mold". Just choose one that fits your needs.

Just download phpBB from here:
http://www.phpbb.com

The site also contains links to themes and stuff, and you can also google for them.

One place is:
http://www.phpbbhacks.com (look for templates)

Not telling people your passwords are basic Internet knowledge.

It is interesting to frequently backup data though, since there are so many factors that can make you lose it all, so you better be prepared.

It is simply impossible to encrypt HTML. When you hide it with JavaScript, you must see that the browser needs to know how to un-hide it, so the "decryption" routines are there.

And besides, some browsers can give you the generated HTML directly.

Like all other open source projects, MySQL probably isn't meant to be profitable, but I sure think people donate to them and they must offer some paid services as well.

Yes, to some extent it is important. They add interactivity to your site and will also make the developer's life easier.

They need a server with PHP / MySQL to work though.

Note that get_browser will only work when you have browscap.ini set.

Also note these detection methods are not perfect, no matter what you use.

For portals, search common mod sites, like for phpBB you can try
http://www.phpbbhacks.com/

I think the forums look way too much like each other, they seem to have a "mold" that everyone is following.

Well, we are not all DJ's, so you should describe better what you want to do.

You don't need a book, there are good tutorials out there.

The official site is good too:
http://www.php.net