Do you know which one(s) is(are) the best concerning the following three metrics:
[list=1]
[]The avatars and [images] attachments are cache-able [or can be configured to be cache-able] and cache-ability can be delegated to Apache to use mod_expires;
[]Likewise for the associated css and javascript files;
[*]The generated HTML documents have a cache-ability mechanism, for instance Last-Modified header.
[/list]
I only know phpBB and vBulletin, and it’s a draw… mainly because avatars/images are stored externally, as are css/js so their expiry is a function of the web server config.
Both these two also generate FE cache versions of their pages.
I just treat them as any other app… my preference is to use a LEMP stack, ensure that the database has adequate memory allocated, and you use a decent opcode cacher like APC.
That’s a good starting point. After that, monitor resources and feed accordingly
One reason why I opened this thread is because I know that SMF snores with respect to image cache-ability, as only avatar images can be delegated to Apache.
On the other hand SMF has a very good optimizing tutorial, cf.:
Although PHPBB is allegedly better, I still haven’t found any good optimizing tutorial.