HTML5 can be used right now, if people are only interested. Whilst it won’t apply to all sites, in many situations (like a personal blog) IE support isn’t necessary. Would you seriously hold back from using HTML5 on an iPhone web app so that you had IE6 support???

I stopped making excuses for users and moved on. Write HTML5, use a JS hack for IE users, or even better, tell them to simply get a better browser; Chrome, Opera, Safari, FF, whatever.

I did mention just over a year ago that most browsers will accept the new HTML 5 structural elements (You Can Start Using HTML 5 Right Now!), but thanks for the more complete update.

However, I would be leery of relying on Javascript to make a page display correctly.

it is possible to use some HTML 5 now — see my blog post HTML 5 elements test in which I reference my HTML 5 test page that shows you can use some of the new structures, even in IE 6!