[Tycho]

I'd say the maximize button is in itself a bad design idea. Hit the green button on the browser window and it will expand to the width (or height) whereby scroll bars are no longer necessary. This 'maximizes' your screen real estate, rather than blowing it all on one window/app like a Windows maximize button. Also, while it's not a bad idea to keep page widths in the 750-1050ish range, No True Mac User would object to using their UI controls to optimize their viewing. I mean that's why they're there.

[pkamb]

Doesn't work so well with a tabbed browser, where each tab is going to have a different optimized 'maximize' size. It's decent for folder windows and etc. though.

[Tycho]

Hmm, that's a good point I hadn't actually considered. BUT, I don't see it as a big problem because once you resize for the largest tab, it's not like the others become unusable, they just now have some redundant space. It helps that most sites conform to a standard range of widths.