I got a 22" monitor. I went to the eye doctor and got special glasses for working. I use 800 x 600 all the time. For all my work and all my web surfing. Almost all sites work just fine.
I spend $5,000 per year on-line. I'm probably not alone. If your site doesn't work for me, I leave (and take my money and eyeballs, too.)
Like I said before, there are 100 million others in the same boat. Not to mention the increasing use of netbooks and mobile devices.
I used to get upset when people here at hn told me how I, as the customer, had to change to suit the vendor, which goes against everything I've ever learned in business. Not any more. Now I just shake my head at the lessons lost.
If I can increase the conversion rate, or even the amount people are willing to spend, by increasing the resolution and that results in greater revenue that targeting 800x600, then I should do it. This is especially important with web apps. 800x600 can actually hurt the usability of some applications that require a lot of fields/controls.
