Try validating. You will find that it's worth the time, and that it solves most errors. Also, it generally increases cross-browser consistency.
It's not always about validating. Remember that Internet Explorer have problems even with valid codes. So i'd say validate first, and if it doesn't work as intended in IE, look up PIE.
I've heard this story a thousand times M57 and I have to say I agree with you. Microsoft will "NEVER" work with the people at WC3 since that's competition. As I've read on one blogger saying; "you'll never see mr Gates walk in at the WC3 office and say 'ok we will wait for your updates ok?' ". Microsoft will never try to manufacture anything that compatible with all application or code on the market. That's how they got their name in the first place.
SoKickIt : yes all browsers have bugs bec not all of them follow the WC3 standards when it comes to standard codes and rendering. As far as competition is concerned, different cars run different engines. There won't be any competition if the ferrari had the same engine as a mclaren. People would then be off buying something either cheaper or looks better. In this case, I'd rather go for something free and have lots of extensions I can use.
There's no browser that entirely follows W3C standards. But that has nothing to do with people at W3C .
Of course, but there's a difference between having software bugs that you can't predict and refusing to keep up with web standards. Look at the BIG gap between the release of IE6 and IE7: IE6 was released in 2001, and IE7 was released late 2006 (they actually rushed it. They intended to release it with Vista in the first place). Of course. But at least they implement the features they support correctly. I'll have to disagree with you here. Microsoft just slowed (or ignored?) it's browser development after the release of version 6. There was no real competition. Now that Firefox showed up, and is taking a big share of the browser market, Microsoft went back again to developing it's own browser to catch up with the competition with Mozilla, but it still isn't doing a good job compared to what other browsers are doing. According to the IE Blog, their intent is "to build a platform that fully complies with the appropriate web standards, in particular CSS 2".
You should see the discussions on SitePoint if you think this is heated. This is nothing more than a campfire, trust me. Also, don't forget to check the stylesheet for validation as well. Fix all the errors, and as many of the warnings as you can find. Sure, the warnings are "optional" but your stylesheet will be cleaner if you avoid throwing warnings (not to mention properly format the stylesheet in the first place) to the validator. That, and it "shuts the validator up" so to speak. In the case of CSS, the less the validator says, the better .