Cocoatacious

近期，由于 Opera 在欧盟状告微软于操作系统内捆绑其 IE 浏览器，引起了大家关于 W3C 制定标准的效率和可行性的质疑。下面列出对此问题分析得较为全面、透彻且具有指导性意义的几篇文章。其中第二篇文章的作者 Andy Clarke 也是 Transcending CSS - the fine art of web design 这本书的作者。

• The B-List: The future of web standards
  

  One of the major issues in resolving this problem is that huge amounts of discussion have essentially assumed a false dilemma, that there are only two ways to run a standards body:

  A closed-door, pay-to-play system, as the W3C is perceived to be.
  A howling mob which runs by consensus of the participants.

  Finding the balance
  This brings us to a new question: how do we find the proper balance between the competing interests of Web vendors and Web users/developers?

  Microsoft is pinned; they’re stuck trying to catch up to what everybody else is already doing, while the competition just keeps piling on new features and new technologies. They’re not dead yet, of course, and are far from it: IE is still the dominant browser and Windows is still the dominant operating system. But there’s definitely been a sea change in the industry: Microsoft, the unstoppable juggernaut, is vulnerable and is having to play catch-up to maintain its dominance. To borrow a phrase from Lewis Carroll, they’re having to run as fast as they can, just to stay where they are.

  And so Microsoft really isn’t relevant to the future of web standards; any compelling new development that comes from the rest of the industry will be just another form of fire and motion, and Microsoft will have no choice but to keep pace, regardless of whether they participated in the process.

• CSS Unworking Group | Malarkey Rides Again
  

  Along with web designers worldwide, I have been creatively stifled by Microsoft’s decision to allow Internet Explorer 6 for Windows to languish in the doldrums for so many years. With their significant market-share, Microsoft should have been at the forefront of technical development and standards support in browsers. That would have fostered an ever increasing focus on what can be possible using CSS. Instead Microsoft allowed their lead to hinder progress and web designers, developers, their clients and their customers have all suffered as a result.

• JeffCroft.com: Do we need a return to the browser wars?
• as days pass by, by Stuart Langridge - Reigniting the browser wars