Over on the O'Reilly PHP blog today, there's this post from Marcus Whitney with a few thoughts on the Zend Framework.

I took some time to reflect on the idea of a Zend PHP Framework. I've come to understand that Zend is interested in furthering PHP in the enterprise, and has first hand experience with the questions that Fortune 100 and even Fortune 500 companies have about adopting PHP. The Zend PHP Framework is not intended to threaten Solar, Prado, Yawp, Cake, Mojavi etc.

Zend is for-profit, and I understand that mindset. Their motives are often questioned because they have such a close relationship with a community that is anything but for-profit.

As for anyone expecting Zend to collaborate on their existing project or framework, good luck. It's clear that they have an agenda, and they are moving on their roadmap with great expediency. To their credit, this is really their vision, so the framework's name is appropriate.

He reinforces several ideas, here - the for-profit nature of Zend (it *is* a company), the high quality that's represented there, and the fact that the framework is their inititive - one that's not meant to provide an overwhelming challenge to the other frameworks out there. It's just another option...