Is 990px a thoroughly safe width for webpages or is 980px and below safer?

I'd like to make my website as wide as possible wi开发者_如何学Gothin the 1024x768 resolution bounds.

If you're wanting to optimize for that resolution you have to keep in mind that the screen resolution of the monitor does not equate to resolution available in the viewport or browser window.

Here's a blog post that talks more about designing for this resolution: http://www.cameronmoll.com/archives/001220.html

I'm personally a fan of fluid widths if you can swing it. If you absolutely have to go with fixed width and optimizing for this resolution I'd go with 960px. Just to be safe.