OS X Web Browsers

Camino

Camino has the best of both worlds: a lightweight OS X application built on top of the Mozilla engine. It is a lightweight Firefox.  OS X integration is built into the application, but not as much as Safari. After taking a look at version 1.5, the problems I see with Camino include:

• Fewest extensions
• Weak functionality (tabs are not draggable, no RSS reader)

Camino loads pages pretty fast, but I've gotta have my tab functionality!  Camino was my browser of choice a couple of years ago.

Firefox
Firefox was my browser of choice up until Safari 3 was released. The extension library is extensive. The browser functionality is customizable. Tabs are draggable and can be scrolled with your mouse. Problems include:

• Performance. Firefox consumes the most resources and loads pages slowly.
• Integration with OS X. URLs from Address Book are not viewable in bookmarks, as well as no OS X spell checker, services, or keychain access.
  

For performance, I found some information that was able to make Firefox run MUCH better in OS X by setting the following

Browser.sessionhistory.max_total_viewers = 5

As far as memory consumption goes, after applying the previous setting, Firefox appears to run approximately 40-45MB more than Camino, although both use the same Mozilla engine. For me, that is acceptable.

I do wish Firefox had more integration with OS X, so hopefully someone will create extensions for this in the future. I am also able to get Keychain access in OS X by using the 1Password application to control security.  Many folks are looking forward to the upcoming Firefox 3 for the Mac.

Safari
I had never been a fan of Safari. There were issues with website compatibility along with weak browser functionality.  Version 3 appears to have tackled these deficiencies, and you can't beat the OS X integration.  Tabbed browsing functionality is nice, but I would prefer to see tabs become more robust and configurable (e.g. favicons, thumbnails, and cache settings).  Out-of-the-box extension support like Firefox would be preferable as well.

There are also some plugins that make Safari a great browser.  I have become a huge fan of SafariStand and Inquisitor.  SIMBL is a hacking technique to apply patches (SIMBL plugins) to OS X functionality.  It is used to provide extensions to Safari.  SafariStand has extensive functionality, but documentation is hard to come by.  Coverflow/Quick Look with Safari web history is a nice add-on.

Statistics

It is interesting to see that a good share of OS X users are running Firefox.  Also, with all of the web 2.0/AJAX sites emerging, Javascript benchmarks are notable.

Summary

BrowseBack appears to be a utility with promise, a Time Machine for web history.  Reviews have been both positive and negative.  It works with all major browsers.

OS X in general has come quite far in browser compatibility. There are still those occasional websites that work on one browser, but not another. The current offering of browsers make OS X just as good or even better than Windows with the goal of being able to use one browser and one browser only.