Although the news came out prominently (albeit briefly) in Wired's home page, the finalization of HTML5 standards was largely under the radar. This actually makes sense considering that most professionals are already waist-deep in HTML5 and are publishing books about the markup language despite the persistent prevalence of XHTML and XML on the web.
In a perfect world, HTML5 is the natural evolution of HTML and a unified platform for web developers. Even non-developers are aware that there are plenty of competitors to HTML5 and more than a dozen ways to structure data/text for the Internet. The mud-slinging and the propaganda when HTML5 was presented as the web standard was harsh - forums were filled with Adobe professionals lambasting HTML5 and defending Adobe Flash. Casual web users commented that HTML5 videos were pathetic and the necessary evil that was Flash was still an overwhelming preference. Of course, once Apple publicly dumped Adobe Flash, the tide somewhat turned for the non-coding citizens of the Internet. The debates were enough to drive me to the relative safety of XML and XHTML. Last year, I attended a conference about developing online videos and although the session was hardly useful (as most generally aren't), the lecturer correctly predicted that no one was in a hurry to adopt HTML5 until some hardware impetus occurred. As it turned out, it was Android and iOS on tablets and smartphones that broke the digital camel's back.
I envy today's generation of developers and programmers. They grew up firmly entrenched in the digital age and think in the same parallel lines as Javascript and PHP naturally. They require less effort to learn the backend and the syntax as compared to those who had to undergo the "traditional" way of learning markup and coding. I realize I'd have better luck learning industrial plumbing or sanitation engineering than jumping into the world of hardcore programming. Programmers can be as condescending as Apple users, as snobbish as digital artists, as prissy as the Kardashians, as temperamental as a drunken Hulk, and as critical as CNN political commentators, but they deserve whatever praise they get a hundredfold. HTML5 and CSS3, thankfully, seem to be designed for the rest of us who thrived freely during the medieval days of BBS, Netscape Navigator, and Space Quest.
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