There are two ways to ensure browser compatibility: Design to the standards, and rely on browser manufacturers to get it right; or keep a copy around of every browser and test against it, and have at least one of the type of computer it runs on. Since Apple's Safari is imperfectly compliant, that means I'd have to buy a Macintosh. Ditto the handful of Linux browsers. Ditto WebTV and set-top boxes. Ditto palmtops and other handhelds.

Not practical unless you're a multigigabuck corporation.

There's a Mozilla-based browser for every operating system and computer, so the plea about marginalization in some computing backwater doesn't carry any weight any more. Everyone can have a compatible browser if they'll just take the time to install it.

Like I said, it isn't only about my convenience. There was a discontinuity with the introduction of two standards-compliant browsers; before, a static Web with generally dumb pages; after, highly-interactive and smart Web sites, more like traditional computer programs than Web "pages". If you've heard buzzwords like "Web 2.0" and "AJAX", those are the hot technologies everybody's using to build new Web sites, and they work only on the standards-compliant browsers. Those are the sites I'm building, and I won't be held back by obsolete browsers.

I'm not budging a Planck's worth.