So we've all read the statistics, the studies, etc out there on the net about what percentage of people have which screen resolution, etc.  Screen resolution is one thing, but browser window size is another and there aren't really any ways to test or study that per se.

W3C, for example, has this study: http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp -- they are quick to point out that their statistics are geared around people who are interested in web technologies, so it stands to reason that their statistics would be skewed towards the higher resolutions (designers, programmers, etc typically run on higher res).

Another study http://www.upsdell.com/BrowserNews/stat_trends.htm suggests that roughly 82% are running at 1024x768 or higher.  Who knows where they got their stats, but they were the second hit googling "web resolution statistics" when I ran the search.

So if I base it on statistics alone, without really taking into account my "market" for the particular site I'm working on, it would suggest that 1024x768 is the way to go.  Now here's the caveat, I'm working on a site for a client that tends to target women between teenage years and one foot in the grave.  A pretty broad spectrum (no pun intended).  The majority of their users are likely to be "at-home" moms.

Would I be safe to assume that more of them are running on older PCs and thus likely lower resolutions, or would I be safe to say "get with the program" and design for 1024?  I know that, especially with CSS, I can design a "fluid" skin that adapts to their browser window, but design in general is not my strongpoint.  I'm a programmer before a designer, and my design is pretty wanting after that.  I could "figure it out", but doing somewhat more static designs are a bit easier for me.

Anyway, here is my development site that I'm working on: http://dev1.homeip.net/stackable -- it is currently optimized for 800x600 and based off a skin from http://www.xhtmlskins.com/ which, in turn, is based off a layout from http://andreasviklund.com/.  I actually have one page (for demo purposes) in 1024x768 (http://dev1.homeip.net/stackable/Figures/tabid/54/Default.aspx).

Would love some opinions and suggestions on this.

From my personal experience, there is no actual magic number for the resolution so all of us can base on to develop websites.

The right thing to do is to develop based on a smart guess gear toward your targer market.
After running a test for a certain period of time, optimize your site to fit your target audience screen resolution based on the results from your analytical tools.

Adjusting your layout design using css these days isn't a big deal after you learn about your target audience.

There are many web tools out there for free that you can use and track your audience screen resolution, Google Analytics would be the first choice for everybody I think.

As you can see that all the big name in news out there already have their statistics for their target audience, so developing your websites based on their resolution means you're developing your site gear toward their target audiences.

Hope this helps!

Cuong Dang
Co-founder: Enliven, dnnGallery
LinkedIn | Twitter
I'm the author of DNN and Web Standards Wrox Blox

Both very excellent suggestions.  I didn't know that Google Analytics was free (have seen the modules available for it, etc) so I will definitely look into that.  I think I'll aim for 1024 for now, use the analytics to see how it pans out, and adjust later.

Thank you both very much!  DNN community rocks!