clientside vs serverside: browser compatibility and javascript issues

I read this story a few days back: Rise of the Underdog Browser. It says that IE is slipping and users are moving to other browsers like Opera and Firefox.

It goes to show that developing apps that work with most of the popular browsers is going to get even tougher. Earlier you supported IE and Netscape and most clients would be happy however u now have to also think of Opera and Firefox. I have nothing against these browsers as I use Opera and Avant Browser quite a lot and think they are wonderful. They have many great features that IE and Netscape lack.

I dread to think of all the Javascript problems that will arise once you try to be compatible with 4 or 5 browsers.

I am not a big fan of Javascript and as far as possible do things on the serverside rather than the client side. The reasons being:

•  Debugging and developing Javascript can be a pain
•  On the serverside, I have the power of Java at my disposal.
•  There are some amazing frameworks available that make things like validations and stuff very simple if done on the serverside.
•  I can afford the overhead of an extra server hit if that means that I am free of Javascript validation and browser compatibility issues on the client side.

So the bottom line is that if u r developing for the future u better plan your apps for compatibility beyond just IE and Netscape.