Camino, a Great Firefox Alternative

by David Chartier Jun 25th 2005

Yea, that's right I said it: a Firefox alternative. I've been on a browser kick lately and I can't keep this burning opinion of mine a secret anymore: I hate Firefox on OS X. I can't stand it. It's a fantastic browser and a necessity on Windows, but it is not what an OS X app could or should be. If you're a Firefox user on OS X, I urge you to at last take Camino out for a spin, as it is an OS X-native browser from Mozilla. In the meantime, before you stone me, Read on and I'll explain where these anti-Firefox sentiments come from.

camino

There are two key reasons why I can't use Firefox with OS X:

1) Firefox doesn't play nice with the plethora of OS X Services that Apple and 3rd party companies have set up.

2) Firefox uses its own system for storing usernames and passwords. Once again: this is great for Windows users, but not for OS X users. Why? Because OS X already has a rockin' system for storing ALL your usernames and passwords across the entire system. FTP servers, internet passwords, application logins... you name it, and it can get automatically stored in OS X's Keychain application. (It's in your Applications/Utilities folder.) This means that I only have one database to back up, copy or sync via .Mac to make sure I have a backup and that my Macs all have the same user and password records.

Enter Camino from Mozilla. All that stuff I just griped about? Solved. It's still from Mozilla, (so it still rocks) but it plays right with OS X like all good little browsers and applications should.

Now one thing Camino doesn't do, which I know can be a big pull for some users, are all those extensions and themes and whatnot that Firefox does. If you're that nutty for that stuff, and you haven't gone batty enough over Tiger's Dashboard widgets, then I can't help you much there. But if you've bothered to read through my little anti-Firefox rant, are open to new browsers and have another minute or two, go snatch a free copy of Camino and start browsing with Mozilla and OS X on your side.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Victor Agreda, Jr. said 10:26PM on 6-25-2005

David, I couldn't agree more. Last time I'd used Camino I still had to empty the cache manually to prevent crashes.

But then I tried the latest rev last night-- most impressive. The engine plays nice with Firefox-happy sites, and yet the speed is as good as Safari. Firefox runs slowly on my sub-GHz G4 iBook...

No need to pimp my Camino.

David Chartier said 11:27PM on 6-25-2005

Awesome Vic! Camino users unite!

Thomas said 5:45PM on 6-27-2005

I can't substitute Dashboard widgets for Extensions. I like all my extensions and I can't wait for Firefox to get a Mac makeover.

metric152 said 6:08PM on 6-27-2005

Firefox doesn't bug me as much as the piss-poor flash performance in almost every os x browser. It seem IE still works the best on that front.

Sabastian said 6:30PM on 6-27-2005

Yes, Firefox is perfect for windows users but disgusting on OSX, I always ask my friends that use it on OSX "whyyyyy????". I like the new Camino (I was an old Camino user back before Firefox and Safari was just being born) but I have to say one thing keeps me to Safari and that is no cross app dragging, you can't drag an image from Camino to iChat or TextEdit, etc. that keeps me with WebKit and I'm excited about the development of Shiira for a more full featured WebKit based browser.

Ian said 7:18PM on 6-27-2005

Note that although Camino doesn't have the Firefox extensions, the functionality of the most important extention (IMO), Adblock, is a built-in preference. :-D

russ said 8:17PM on 6-27-2005

How is it with the cache? I do alot of flash web design, and I'm constantly re-uploading minor changes and checking em online. With Safari, I have to constantly empty the cache before I can view the new version! hopefully camino will perform better...

David Chartier said 8:36PM on 6-27-2005

Russ, I haven't seen any Flash issues, but then again I haven't been using it with any flash files or sites that are being updated or tweaked. Unless someone else can chime in on this one, the best I can say is go take a crack at it for yourself. It's a quick, easy download with no installer. Just a drag and drop of the application from the mounted disk image and you're ready to go. Good luck!

Aulia said 10:37PM on 6-27-2005

Camino has CamiOptions and CamiSearch for extension-like preferences add-ons. Search for them at macupdate.

paul said 11:57PM on 6-27-2005

Russ, you still have to do that on flash sites with Camino. I'm not sure why. Sadly, it seems to be a problem with every browser.

Adrian said 6:56AM on 6-28-2005

Im a diehard firefox osx user, and what Russ is trying to do is easy in firefox�just install the "Web Developer Toolbar" extension and you can disable the cache and do many, many more things which blew my mind the first time i saw it.

The only problem i have in FF is the horizontal scroll bar at the bottom doesnt display correctly, its blank, however i can still scroll as if it were there. Im totally used to it, but any one else with that?

Samuel Sidler said 8:49PM on 7-02-2005

For the record, Camino is not "from Mozilla", but simply a community run project with no major support from Mozilla. They do support us with buzilla, bandwidth, tinderboxen, etc, but not with physical people hacking on code and making Camino better.

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