Coming soon: More standard-compliant sites?

http://news.com.com/2100-1023-868921.html

Post your opinions.

Well I'd like to say "Code to standards and there won't be a problem". But I seriously doubt AOL will take mozilla and just pop it into their browser. I'm sure they will destroy it somehow and make it proprietary... and we will only have more headaches than we have now. But I still think coding to standards will help a lot. It certainly doesn't hurt...

Hopefully all their whining and covert ops just makes Linux stronger. (and the other "little guys" like Opera)

AOL vs. Microsoft: Is there REALLY ever going to be a winner?? Yes, but I don't think it will be either of them, rather, some hybrids.

Here's why:

Both thrive off of inexperienced web users. Maybe with more experience, (which is inevitable- since people tend to use the internet more and more) users will shy away from both.

Unfortunately, there's a few more AOL users than there are, um, me.

just my opinion. - good topic eh...

ok heres my question-
if sites can be designed to look fabulous in IE, but then alot of the things dont work in other browsers...why cant everyone just get IE?? it doesnt make sense to me, its the easiest to code for and has the most features..why do other companies just have to make browsers just because they want to. i say if you choose to get another browser when you know its not going to be compatible with most sites..then you are just being stubborn.

you must not have used IE 6 yet... the single worst application I've ever used. more bugs than a vegas hooker!

If everyone used IE nothing would ever improve. It would just be another monopoly like windows. They would have no competition or reason to make it better. Just like Comcast cable internet... I've been trying to get service for 12 days!!! And guess what... I have no other choices if I want broadband. DSL isn't available, and there are no other competing cable companies. They own the whole market. So they can jack up the prices (which they have done) and offer terrible support (which they do) because they have no reason to do otherwise. And the same would happen if there was only one browser. I like the features of Opera a hell of a lot more than IE. For one thing it's only 2 megs. It doesn't include a ton of crap you don't want. It has a nice simple email client. It has numerous other very nice features that are better than IEs in my opinion.

It's the fault of all browser makers that the sites don't work in all browsers. If they would all just support the standards, then add their own features on top of that, then we would all be fine. Developers could code to standards, and it would work in every browser. Right now most people code to work with only IE, because it has the largest market share. So that is the first priority in making sites work. That is why you think IE works better. If they all just supported standards, then we would all be happy.

im not saying IE 'works' better, im saying it has the most features and functionality, because obviously many things (scripts, etc.) work in IE but not other browsers. now if web standards were developed and they incorporated as many features as possible then that would be fine, but right now IE is the most versatile (and i have IE6 and i have never had 1 problem with it, just so you know)

But the scripts work with IE because it is the largest browser, and so more developers will code for it. It's not that it's better.

Sure, it allows you to do chomeless windows, colored scroll bars and all that crap... but eh... those aren't really anything important. because they both suck.

I installed IE 6 the day it came out, and my computer started crashing and hanging and all manor of craziness until I uninstalled it. And even then, IE 5.5 has never worked quite right.

/me points to the right ;) -->

well ive had no problems with it.
and as far as it being 'better' like i said earlier (maybe i was unclear) its not that it is a better browser, but more that it is the better one to use as a standard, because thats what everything is incorporated to work under. but nevermind ill shutup, i cant argue with a hard-headed opera-boy ;)

But see, if everyone standardized on IE, then Microsoft could dictate how the web works. That's why there is the W3C, which is a neutral group made up of many different companies to decide what is best.

But yes, IE would be the easiest to standardize on because it has the largest user base right now, and because of that more sites are compatible with it. But since they don't support standards, that leaves all the other people that use different browsers out in the cold. If every browser used the same standards to render the HTML, then that would solve the problem. I would even be happy if IE still used chromeless windows and all of that extra stuff, if it would just render the basic standards stuff like it's supposed to. And the same for all the other browsers. Just get the basics right, then put whatever you want on top of that.

OperaBoy... that would make a good t-shirt.