Jedadiah Ashford
2/9/08
CSS Standards: CSS 2.1, CSS 3 vs. Browser Support - Response 1, Response 2

                The changes that CSS 2.1 and 3 provide are aspects that will really help web designers create pages that are more tailored to what their customers want to see. These changes should have been made years ago. The argument here is that the only reason that CSS2.1 isn’t even implemented yet is due to browser support. If companies wont update their browsers then the standards cannot be implemented. This is such a deep issue that it’s hard to write out here all the different angles. First of all, it comes down to the largest and most used browser, Internet Explorer, which is made by Microsoft. Microsoft has control of most of the browser market because they make the operating system that most of the others are installed on. The only exception would be safari that is installed on apple computers. This is a powerful position because why would anyone buy or download any other browsers if they already have one on their computer? This is why most people use Microsoft. Microsoft knows this so why would they have any incentive to change their browsers? They don’t. Now we can understand why browsers didn’t accept the new changes. If other browsers changed their standards for CSS and Microsoft didn’t then when the developers created pages with the new code then it would look and render correct on other browsers such as firefox and safari, but would look incorrect on the internet explorer websites. Since most people us Internet Explorer then it would obviously be a big mistake to implement new standards unless ALL companies update their browsers. Why doesn’t Microsoft update their browsers? It costs money and time to change and support the new changes to a product of theirs, and no company would do this unless they are going to make money off of it. Microsoft already provides Internet explorer for free and as no reason to put money into it, unless they are forced.
                Opera, another browser, files a lawsuit against Microsoft for two things. The first was that they aren’t implementing the new standards in their web browsers. The second was that they needed to allow other browsers to be pre-installed on their operating systems. We are going to focus on the first subject. As mentioned before, none of these browsers can accept the new CSS changes unless Microsoft follows suit. They refuse to do so. The courts may force them to change anyway. This would do wonders for the web developing community. We cannot move forward to new changes and technology when we have a big fat cat sitting on his throne. Hopefully Opera wins the suit and forces Microsoft to accept the changes and we can start seeing some amazing things happen in the future.

Source:  http://www.stuffandnonsense.co.uk/malarkey/more/css_unworking_group/