RE: CSS vs tables for layout

> To answer your follow on question, I can't think of a relevant alternative
> that competes with the CSS vs table layout design problem.  (If they're not
> using one of those two techniques, they're doing something else.)

There really are 3 prevailing methods in common usage today:
1. Old fashioned table-based layout (usually using visual/WYSIWYG tools).
2. Tableless CSS layout.
3. A mix of the two (halfway between), which many refer to as a
"transitional approach." In this, only a single bare-bones table is used
to distinguish between the largest blocks of content (for example: header,
footer, content columns, sidebar). Tables are not nested at all. Then CSS
is used to add margin, padding, etc. to further position/align the
elements on the page (as well as to style everything).

A better resource for this discussion is the CSS-D list.

Larry