Camino Browser

The Camino Browser is a alternate browser for OS X built on the same technology as Firefox, however it uses the native OS X interface and has attractive icons and menus, to really give it an “OS X feel.” The idea is to take the stability and performance of Firefox, but capture the attractiveness of Safari and other native OS X applications.

The first thing you will notice is that the application has a lightweight feel. The download size is small at 14.2MB. Camino has JavaScript and Java enabled, and attempts to set the most useful settings up for you by default.

Camino comes with a built-in pop-up blocker, but it is not turned on by default. There is a built-in search tool (that uses Google out of the box), which we’ve come to expect from modern browsers. The Camino website indicates that it uses the latest Gecko rendering engine (1.8) in its 1.0 browser version, which is supposed to load pages faster and be more stable.

In the Preferences section of the options, there is an option to Block web advertising. By checking this box, advertisements like those created with Google AdSense, will not be shown. Another nice option in the “Annoyance blocking” section of Camino is a checkbox for Prevent sites from changing, moving, or resizing windows. More web browsers should include this as an option, as I find websites that maximize or otherwise change the size of my browser window to be very annoying.

Camino also has a “keychain” that will save passwords for you so that you don’t have to enter them every time. This is considered to be a standard feature in modern browsers.

I found no problem with Camino while using Gmail, and I noticed that I prefer the way it renders text to Firefox (slightly smaller in Camino which means I can view more messages). I tested Writely and Zoho Writer for browser compatibility and found no errors. I loaded a number of graphics-heavy websites and found that rendering time, subjectively, was too close to call between Safari and Camino. One substantial difference however was the speed when clicking “Back” and “Forward.” Camino manages to do this faster than any other browser (including Firefox) I’ve used.

I also tested ajaxWrite and was pleased to see that it loaded the application very quickly, and looked quite attractive. Camino or Firefox would be the best ways to run ajaxWrite on a Mac since Safari is not supported. I suppose that many new web application companies simply cannot justify the additional time required to ensure Safari compatibility.

Pros

• Stylish, svelte look and feel, works everywhere Firefox does
• Close tabs by clicking “X” on each tab (Safari), not one “X” in upper right corner (Firefox)
• “Annoyance blocking” is useful feature
• “Back” and “Forward” are faster than any other browser

Cons

• Find in Page (Command+F) opens in a pop-up window instead of along the bottom status bar
• Extension support?
• “Light” Mac users or “heavy” Firefox users on OS X might find themselves asking “why another browser?”

Who is this for?

Camino is for OS X users that need a Safari and Firefox alternative and want something svelte and attractive. If you are a heavy Firefox user on OS X, you really don’t need this, since it really doesn’t offer any whiz-bang functionality. It’s not clear from their website or from the application itself whether Firefox extensions are supported. If you are like me and frequently move between PC and Mac, and are a heavy Firefox user, you’ll probably find that Camino doesn’t offer you any practical benefits. In this case, I’m recommending that you skip it. If you are a Mac fanatic, as many Mac users are, Camino is probably the best alternative to Safari, and probably the most attractive option for web applications that do not support Safari.