The provided text explores the historical struggle between two competing web standards in the 2000s: W3C’s XHTML 2 and the browser vendors’ HTML5. It details the technical and philosophical differences that defined this schism, highlighting XHTML 2's ambition for a clean, XML-based break versus HTML5's pragmatic, backward-compatible approach. The document outlines the key roles played by the WHATWG (Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group) and major browser makers like Apple, Mozilla, Opera, and Google in influencing the web's direction. Ultimately, it explains the failure of XHTML 2 and the rise of HTML5, leading to long-term consequences for the web platform and the dominance of rendering engines like Blink.