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The standards and requirements of web-based user interfaces have steadily risen in recent years, and heavy use of Javascript and sometimes AJAX is almost unavoidable in modern day web applications. However, developing with Javascript could be similar to pulling teeth - There’s a lot of bleeding and the pain won’t go away for several days (Incidentally, I had a tooth pulled out recently).

Javascript, unlike server-side languages such as PHP, are parsed by the browser, and is browser-dependent in its functionality and debugging process. As fate would have it, all browsers differ from each other in their implementations of Javascript parsing, often times even diverging on different versions of the same browser. And of course, there is also Internet Explorer, whose vile and unspeakable acts of Javascript terror are only surpassed by its level of adherence to Css standards.

For basic usage, plain old Javascript can still make do and create simple user-interface interactions. But when the user-interface requirements are high, and Javascript deployment is massive, other alternatives might be considered.
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The Web 2.0 concept has been around for a while (coined by O’Reily Media in 2003) and it’s basically synonymous with community driven accessible web sites / web applications.

One of chief characteristics of Web 2.0 websites is the layout. Web 2.0 design pushes for simplicity, with large fonts and a lot of empty real-estate. The use of colorful icons to spice up the design is common. Another common feature of web 2.0 pages is the obsession with Rounded Corners. As most web developers will tell you, Rounded Corners are a thorn in the backside. They look good in photoshop, but when you need to make variable sized containers with rounded corners against gradient backgrounds (another hallmark of web 2.0 design), things get messy.

The Octabox development team has too sinned the rounded path, incorporating rounded corners into most graphical elements, spending countless hours trying to come up with the ultimate solution to make it work against a background gradient pattern, allowing for drag-and-drop rounded corners windows that will look good over any surface and what not.
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