2by4 - 8:22 pm on May 31, 2005 (gmt 0)

Have to second bird's points, just because a screen has a certain resolution doesn't mean the browser window occupies all of it. I set my Firefox to 1024x768, and it displays all websites I come across perfectly, but I also have access to my desktop. Most users who use 1280 or higher are power users, and don't have apps open full screen.

full width layouts look really silly when the browser window is set small or large, impossible to read, that's been studied, ideal words per line is around 12, give or take, pick up any newspaper, magazine, or book, excluding technical books, and count the characters. You'll find they are pretty much all within 12-18 words per line, give or take, that's how much your brain can comfortably retain if you are an average reader, any more and you have to rescan the line to get the whole thing in your head.

Since as of now IE doesn't support min or max width you can only control these problems by using hacks, which most pro websites avoid for very good reason.

Also, creating nice looking layouts is harder full screen, you lose alot of control, especially with graphical headers etc. See for example slashdot, which looks horrible as far as I'm concerned, but works fine for geeks.

Personally, I like WebmasterWorld's method of using a percentage of full screen, that's a nice compromise.