Re: [WD XHTML 2.0 ] why not use xlink

  >> Why does the XHTML 2.0 WD not use XLink for linking as recommended
  >> in the XML Accessibility Guidelines WD <http://www.w3.org/TR/xmlgl>
  >> section 2.3?
  >
  > That's a long story.  See:
  >
  > http://www.w3.org/2001/tag/ilist#xlinkScope-23

So this is the explanation given (for those who don't want to go and 
look for it in the link):

  > The XHTML specification does not use xlink, as (I understand) the
  > working group felt that it was too clumsy to use a different
  > namespace, and they wanted it to look like HTML, which uses href=.