14 DAY TRIAL // If you're a Mac user, that doesn't mean you are going to use all the software that comes with it and be happy. After all, nothing is perfect, and I am sure about the fact that I won't catch the day when an operating system will ship with all the perfect software bundled. Anyway, there's no perfect software at this time, and the fact that nothing seems to be perfect is the engine that pushes the computer software and the entire humanity forward.
Today, I will stop at one software category that gets a lot of press coverage no matter the operating system we're talking about - the Web browsers. I don't have to tell you what such a program does, you all know at least two or three such programs and, of course, each one of us has its own requirements from its Web browser...
My target is called Camino, and its latest version is 1.0.3. If this name doesn't sound familiar, maybe you have heard of Chimera, its previous project name. Still no luck? In this case, I am sure Mozilla rings a bell, and I am not just throwing this name at you, because this Web browser uses the Gecko layout engine and is developed by - guess who? Well, Mozilla, of course!
As one would expect, this program is absolutely free to download and use. Camino comes as a 14.3MB download and is shaped as a Universal Binary, compatible with both Intel and PowerPC based Macs. To use it, you need to be running Mac OS X 10.2.8 or later, but enough with all this; let's get to action now, shall we?
Camino uses a Cocoa user interface, and I found it to be much pleasant to use than Firefox, although I've been using Firefox for ages, and the best part of the entire story is that while Firefox keeps crashing on my Mac from time to time; I had no problems with Camino so far. The interface looks very good, obviously, and working with it is as easy as possible.
Camino can open as many pages as you want, and while it's a tabbed Web browser, you can open as many separate windows as you need. The good part about the multi browsing feature is that all you have to do is concentrate on your work and not on tabs management.
Since I mentioned management, one of the features that can push forward a lot or pull underground a Web browser is its ability to handle the Bookmarks; fortunately, Camino doesn't have any problems with this. The Bookmark Manager can be accessed via the nice button located to the upper right-hand corner of the main Window, and even if this is the first one you're using, things should be as easy as possible.
If you want to import bookmarks, you can do it by using an external bookmarks file, but Camino can import Safari, Opera, Firefox and Internet Explorer with a single click, which is great. When it comes to exporting them, you can use an HTML file or send your bookmarks straight to Safari.
The Preferences window of this program is really easy to use, and all the options are clearly laid down - General, Appearance, Privacy, Security, History, Tabs, Downloads and Web Features - these are the areas you can take care of here, and changing your settings is as easy as one-two-three.
These being said, the time has come to draw the conclusions and let you enjoy this program's screenshots.
The Good
Camino is fast, easy to use and has an excellent interface. During the time I used it, this program proved to be reliable and it didn't chew up all the system resources available.
The Bad
Camino can't use skins as far as I was able to figure out, and there is no plugin management area laid down nicely like in Firefox; so, I can only hope to see improvements regarding this aspect in the future.
The Truth
Camino is the Web browser for Mac that makes you feel like home. Being more of a Windows user than a Mac one, using Firefox, Opera or Internet Explorer here feels a bit strange, and the imminent crashes that happen from time to time - just to remind me that these programs are not at home in Mac OS X - make me appreciate twice as much Camino's reliability and speed. Download and enjoy this program, because I know I did enjoy it, and I am going to keep using it!
Check out the screenshots here:
