Only started noticing this lately as I was working on a PC that had the resolution set at 800x600. The rule of thumb used to be that you setup a web site so that at that resolution you didn't get horizontal scrolls - however, I see that has pretty much fallen by the side of the road. Started browsing around on this PC and found many sites that would produce horizontal scrolling. So a show of hands -- how many site developers are still setting up pages for this resolution, or is 1024x768 the "default" lowest screen size you worry about now?
I'm with you on the scalable - but noticed a lot of sites that were scaling even give it up to scrolls when it hits 800x600. Started searching around and found these stats, which are a little dated, but interesting. http://www.onestat.com/html/aboutus_pressbox43-screen-resolutions.html
when i start up a design my page is 1024x768, i used to try to develop for 800x600, but i'm not developing for the lowest common denominator of any sort. i figure once you toss in a transparent flash banner set to its position by CSS and a few of the other fancy tricks running around right now if your graphics card is too weak to run @1024x768, rendering will be the issue... not comfortable viewing. One serious exception i would make is for ATI/Nvida/Omega/anybody else who produces graphics drivers. They should make sure to scale to the lowest possible setting because many times you will be on their site to find drivers after a fresh install.
I develop for 1024x768. But that is company standard, not my personal preference. I'm a Windows user. I try not to open my Windows to full screen (it annoys me no end those sites which deem it appropriate to fiddle with my browser size and expand it without my permission). I generally have multiple screens open and like to switch between them, and often copy from one to the other, or reference one while typing in another.
