Some Historical Context:

CSS level 1	W3C recommendation 17 Dec 1996
CSS level 2	W3C recommendation 12 May 1998

Browser support for CSS level 1:

browser	when released	support
		CSS1	CSS2
MSIE 3.0	fall 1996 (PC)	C-
Netscape 4.0	summer 1997	B-	D
MSIE 4.0	fall 1997	B	C
MSIE 5.0	Feb 1999	A-	B+
Netscape 4.73	spring 2000	B-	D
Netscape 6.0	Dec 2000	A	A-

Note: Grades are my personal opinion only. Different minor versions of browsers, and different platforms, have different characteristics and bugs.

Next: competing goals