As noted on numerous sites yesterday, the Camino browser has officially reached version 1.0. This is great news, as Camino has long been one of the fastest, best looking browsers available for OS X. I've used it off and on over the years, but now, with 1.0 out, I'm giving it a test run as my main browser for a week. Why? I'm a bit tired of Firefox's non-Mac-like interface, and Safari seems to get slower each day I use it. Plus I like some of the features it offers.
Over on macworld.com, you can read my Editor's Notes entry to learn why I'm giving Camino a test run. While it's not a full review (or even a preview), it does cover some of the features you'll find in Camino, as well as a couple of essential plug-ins.
If you're presently not entirely satisfied with your browser of choice, give Camino a shot. It's lacking in a few areas, but overall, it's a very capable browser with a very standard OS X interface and a great feature set. I must admit, I love the 'browser wars'--they're clearly giving us not only more choices, but more better choices than we've ever had before...
Maybe I missed it, but I don't see support for the RSS feeds. One of the things I liked most about switching to a Mac full time (and using Safari) was bookmarking RSS feeds like yours, and then knowing when there is something new to read. I don't like Firefox, BTW. Camino looks good, but I don't want to give up my RSS feeds.
There's no current RSS feed support (CamiScripts will let you work, sort of, with NewsFire and Vienna). There is planned basic support for a future version, which will at least pass the feeds to an external reader.
And if you enjoy feeds, I highly recommend choosing a reader other than Safari. There are some great ones out there (Vienna's not bad for free, and I use NetNewsWire). They have features that go well beyond a basic browser, set up to specifically make it easy to follow a large number of feeds.
-rob.
Yeah. I've been running/testing the nightly builds for some time now and, if you haven't used Camino for a while, you'll notice many mice improvements. It's still fast and it's very solid, too.
Well, I checked out NetNewsWire. It's pretty nice, but to be honest one of the things I liked about the integration with Safari is not having any other apps open. Right now I have Mail and Safari open all the time. On my bookmark bar in Safari, I have a folder of RSS Feeds. A number pops up next to the bookmark when there's a new item to read. In my book it doesn't get any easier than that. In fact, that's the how I got started reading various blogs (including yours) in the first place.
I used Safari for quite a while, but then, I found I wanted better organization and tracking abilities for feeds. I subscribe to nearly 200 of them, so there's a lot of info every day. I now have them organized by folder and sub-folder, and I can flag articles so they'll stay around forever, which is nice.
The built-in web browser means I usually don't need to switch back to a 'real' browser to view the story, either, if I want the full version. But I agree, it's definitely another app to worry about managing. Then again, I've usually got 10 or 15 open all the time anyway, so what's one more for the party? :)
-rob.
I've been using Camino since the .8 betas or so. It's pretty rocking. With CamiScripts, it has everything I need, and it's much faster.
Those of us who wanted a better browser pre-Safari (rather, pre-Safari 1.x with tabs and a lot of other features missing from the 1.0) will remember that Camino (formerly Chimera) rocked hard on the Mac. Safari stole some thunder, but I have always followed Camino builds with interest. Far better than FF in my experience, at least as a Mac browser.
I guess I have to run the same test. It's obviously much faster and (IMO) lighter. Safari has always felt like a resource hog. I'm saying goodbye to Safari for a while as well. Thanks for giving the extra push.
I have used Camino for the last two years. I have gone to Safari, Firefox, Opera and even Flock in between, but I have always come back to Camino. It is fast and just feels right. Does anyone know how to make it use different logins and passwords for the same site? For example, my wife and I both use gmail and it saves one login but not more than one.
"Does anyone know how to make it use different logins and passwords for the same site? For example, my wife and I both use gmail and it saves one login but not more than one."
It cannot do this yet, but it is one of the things seem to be working on. Closely related will be the ability to use Safari keychain entries, rather than creating its own.
For a long time I used Firefox until someone pointed out that Safari's text rendering and form widgets were easier on the eyes. Just look at Wikipedia's homepage in Safari and Firefox or Camino and you be the judge.
Camino and Seamonkey render italics text just a ugly as Firefox, but at least Camino and Deerpark (G4-optimized Firefox) utilize the aqua forms widgets.
Regarding RSS, I was quite fond of Firefox's live bookmarks and the Sage RSS extension.
If you are looking fo an alternative to Safari, Opera is an excellent choice. Opera renders text and widgets similarly to Safari, supports services, is fast, and works well with its own RSS rendering engine or in concert with NetNewsWire Lite, although NNWL does inter-operate better with Safari. I'm testing the v9.0 technology preview and it is very stable. labs.opera.com is your destination for the beta.
Many people seem to not realize that Camino, like all other browsers, aren't mean to be the ULTIMATE browser. All browsers have slightly different features because they target different markets as no user has the same identical preferences and needs.
I've been using Shiira for a while now, and have to say I think it's better than either the stock Safari and Camino. The sidebar's just plain handy, and the Tabspose (no idea if that's actually what it's called) feature is just amazing. I turned off tabbed browsing in Safari because I'm used to juggling huge amounts of windows on screen with Expose. Now I have all my web windows neatly contained in one browser window, but can still use Expose to visually find the one I need right now.
Oh and that handy 'make a folder a day' download behaviour just tops it off.
Don't be fooled by the default ultra-cheesy 'page transitions', Shiira is the way to go.
Well, Rob? It's been about a month. How did your test turn out?
I'm still using it regularly, if that says anything :). I barely go back to Safari or Firefox any more. Safari occasionally for the (very few) sites that seem to give Camino trouble (and some form-intensive sites where I love Safari's auto-fill). Firefox gets used when I'm working on the site, as the Web Developer extension is amazingly useful in that context.
Other than that, it's all Camino all the time!
-rob.
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