Browser Wars
Alex:
To get a better future, not only do we need a return to “the browser wars”, we need to applaud and use the hell out of “non-standard” features until such time as there’s a standard to cover equivalent functionality. Non-standard features are the future, and suggesting that they are somehow “bad” is to work against your own self-interest.
Ten years ago, in 1997, some people spent ages getting DHTML pages working across IE and Netscape, and when we were done we felt dirty and bruised. Some of us crawled back into our caves resolving that stabbing ones-self repeatedly with a sharp object was more preferable.
However, some people saw it as an opportunity.
In 2007, the people that saw it as an opportunity have created Dojo, YUI, JQuery etc. So this time around we're ready for them, and it doesn't have to hurt. This time around it's a matter of waiting for Alex, John etc to have taken all the pain and revved the frameworks.