Exit, stage left

So this morning, per usual, I started off my day by checking my work email and my Google Reader.  Over the weekend, the posts in the Reader tend to pile up and some of them catch my eye more than others.  Today I found myself reading through information about HTML5, and ended up at this post:

http://www.onextrapixel.com/2010/06/02/build-a-html5-css3-website-layout-without-images%E2%80%93part-1/

I admit to not knowing a great deal about HTML5, but the bits of it that I saw in this article made me extremely happy.  The idea that there will be standardized naming conventions for elements and layout items that are generally the basic framework of a site - thus cutting down the number of words inside the HTML documents - and subsequently the simplification of applying certain CSS rules . . . I'm smiling on the inside.

However,  in the work I've done, its clear to me that although IE6 is tentatively edging it's way towards the stage exit, other iterations of IE and other browsers that do not support HTML5 (or CSS3) are still going to be major players for a long time yet - so I have to wonder how efficient the use of HTML5 and CSS3 in creating a website is going to be.  If the so-called "death" of IE6 is any indication, its going to be a long time before we'll be able to move fully and practically into this world of simplified HTML5/CSS3 documents.   (I'm kind of hoping that I'm wrong.)