I use the right tool(s) for the job. It all depends on the application and what I'm trying to accomplish.

The on over-riding requirement that I've always insisted on in any web application that I am involved in writing is that what the browser sees is as platform neutral as practical. I certainly eschew things like Front Page extensions, Java Applets, Active X and other outrages.

Main reason I put Java Applets into that group is because of the various issues I've stumbled across over the years dealing with JRE and JVM differences.

I'll use JavaScript where I have to but it is a PITA dealing with browser differences so I try and minimize its use to the basics.

CSS layout where possible/practical and again with as much browser neutrality as possible. In some cases in the past I've had to employ CSS hacks to deal with various bugs in browsers to get things to work evenly across browsers.

And I haven't really mentioned a particular language or preferred server platform. :-)