Fluid / liquid or fixed layout? There should be no question about this, as nowadays the screen resolutions vary from 800 (yes, still in use) to 2400 pixels width, imagine how bad a fixed 900 px layout looks in a 28 inch browser window? A liquid (or elastic as Roger Johansson mentioned ) layout will always adjust itself on the browser window, only IE 6 makes problems as always: IE Doubled Float-Margin Bug.
Glish describes a four layout column technique that can actually be used to provide as many columns on a page as you like.
Max design explains one method of achieving a successful liquid layout the easy way.
Creating Liquid Layouts with Negative Margins by A list apart is providing some useful tips on creating a fluid layout with negative margins, which allow pushing the content area away from the sides of the browser and leaving room for the sidebar.
Liquid Designs ( created by Christian Montoya ) has a nice showcase of the best fluid designs including mine : 1200, 1024 and 800pixels browser size. Screenshots are taken with Firefox, but IE (all orphans) shows it the same way.
on Jul6 07I really liked this post. My computer’s resolution is 1400 pixels wide. Some fixed layouts don’t look half bad. But others look awful. I find that fluid layouts always come off as more professional-looking.
on Jul8 07I’ve always wanted to make fluid layouts, it’s just that they’re usually not as nice with in-text images. When I overcome that fear one day.
P.S. Your layout is super awesome. Took a few more seconds to find my way around here, though.