phpnuke vs coding it myself

[Lino]

Has anybody tried using software like phpnuke and totally changing the look, and only use the functionality of the application? Was it tough? Any examples/samples out there you know that are powered by phpnuke like software, but doesn't have it's interface only the functionality running? I guess I haven't been impressed by the look of any of these packaged software and wondered if I should just code the whole thing from scratch?

[EliteWeb]

code it yourself phpnuke is so damn hackable. left and right ;) i know couz 6 different groups have hacked one of my sites.

[bedlam]

Typo3 [typo3.org]

Pros-

• 100% customizable markup
  
• Quite secure
  
• Very powerful and easy to extend
  
• Many extensions available
  
• Very free
  

Cons-

• Takes some time to understand how to get that power working for you* ;-)
  

-B

*Seriously - it's only viable if you have some time to devote to learning the system. But once you do, it can be as little as a matter of hours to go from a templated design to a large, functional site, or to change the look of a running site 100%.

[Lino]

Thank you for you responses. How can phpNuke be hacked? What can they do to hack it? Do they steal data from the database or do they just mess with the interface?