Well... Take a look at
www.feds201.com and decide. I don't know. I mean... all forums do the same thing. The style and way in which they do it may be different, and that's all up to what the admin likes. Personally, I like my style better than the XMB ones i've seen, but as i said, it all what you like.
#2: They have a bunch of converters for other types of foums going into phpBB. (you can find them at:
www.phpbb.com ) All transfers should be ok, but i can't say for 100% sureness.
#3: Admin. When you go to set up your forums for the first time, you go to: root/install.php (and delete it after
)
There you enter a few things (like you db connection, forum title, and the Admin account (username and pass) )
It will auto-gen the config.php file for you, and if it can't write to the directory because it's read only, it will let you download the config file and let you upload it yourself.
-It went very smooth and easy for me.
If you like the layout of CD, then phpBB is closer to that than XMB.
PS: It also supports many different types of databases. Some are: MySQL, PostgreSQL, MsSQL, MS Access ODBC