I think you’re confused. The vendor prefix helps the Web. Vendors all agreed to use it because it explicitly prevents a vendor’s testing or internal use CSS property name from ever conflicting with a CSS specified property. All vendors use this approach, not just Mozilla, and it’s a good thing.

The -moz css serves two purposes. First, it’s how we get widespread testing for incomplete css features. Sometimes our implementation is still incomplete and sometimes the spec is still incomplete. With the vendor prefix, we can release and test browser features that ARE developed in W3C drafts but that haven’t reached Candidate Recommendation status yet.

Second, Firefox itself is built using the languages of the Web. The entire Firefox front end is rendered similarly to Web pages in that it’s constructed of XML boxes styled with images and CSS and powered by JavaScript. Some CSS features implemented for the purpose of building Firefox itself, rather than for Web developers to use in Web pages, may have the -moz addition in their name and are therefor guaranteed not to conflict with any future official CSS properties.

The entire point of the -moz prefix is to make it clear that these are not finished or Web ready CSS features. In the old days, there wasn’t a vendor prefix. Now there is and every major browser uses it and it’s even codified in the CSS spec itself.

- A

Microsoft is a commercial company; they are required to compete, they are required to get people to use their product, they are required to make profit.

The encouraging thing here is that (maybe for the first time?) Microsoft are competing to get people back to IE, using a standard and acceptable marketing campaign — a product-specific competition. This should be seen as a win for those promoting competition.