The open source forum software dubbed bbPress has been in development for quite some time, and while I’ve only half-heartedly followed the development of it, I was excited to learn a public/stable version has finally been released. There has of course been a semi-stable version available previous to this release, but a “public release” to me means that people who do not consider themselves coders (ahem, myself) could actually use it and work on it without royally screwing it up or getting utterly lost in the code.
Plans are in the works for adding plugin management (currently none is provided unless you write your own and stuff them in a my-plugins folder) and the same theme-switching capability you see in WordPress. Best of all, this project started out being specifically written to integrate seamlessly with a WordPress blog. Installation and configuration is supposed to be a snap, and requirements for running it are minimal.
The code behind bbPress is also supposed to be very lightweight, hence providing users and administrators alike a speedy and easy to use forum. I’m anxious to try it out and see what I can do with it, based on my limited abilities. 
For a nice walk-through on setting up shop, check out Devlounge’s Ultimate bbPress Guide.
