The Version 4 Browsers Must Die.
The 4.0 versions of Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator were very important programs for the web. In their day, they were the most sophisticated web browsers available, brimming over with new technology, and enabling the widespread use of Dynamic HTML. They rode the crest of the tidal wave of new internet users and authors, and pretty much defined the way web pages were written for years to come.
While they were pioneering, however, they were also crude in many ways. Due to age, their support for web standards is sorely lacking, particularly in the case of Netscape 4.x, which will totally destroy modern CSS-based pages unless the author inserts numerous hacks and work-arounds. IE4 is no angel, either.
These web standards have huge potential - they are the forerunners of the semantic web, and very effective labour-saving technologies in their own right. Writing valid standards-based web pages gives the author the hope that browsers will do a decent job of displaying them. For the majority of modern browsers, this hope will largely be fulfilled.
CSS allows the separation of content from presentation. This separation allows the design and style of a website can be controlled by a small number of centrally-maintained files, which in turn allows redesigns to happen quickly and easily, and individual pages to be transferred painlessly from one design (or even site) to another. In the future, this separation of content and presentation will ease the transition to other file formats and technologies.
Combined with even the simplest server-side processing, such as includes, the combination of HTML and CSS allows pages to be produced and maintained quickly and easily.
With a little care on the part of the author, pages produced with these techniques can be read by virtually any browser, including the talking browsers used by the visually impaired, and the automated "spiders" used by search engines.
Among web authors, there is now a common cry: "I'd love to use CSS more, but I have to support the version 4 browsers." These old warhorses, which led the charge as the WWW grew, are now holding the web back. Microsoft stopped supporting IE4 years ago. Netscape haven't issued any significant updates for NN4 since 1999. It's time to let them die.