The browser wars continue to rage as Firefox 2.0 and Internet Explorer 7 are both released, but on my own private battlefield there are only two contenders - Firefox and Camino. Oh, sure, when I'm working with a Linux or Windows machine it's Firefox hands down, but on OS X I have other options.

When I first started using a mac I was immediately wooed by the sleek looking and high performance Safari. Unfortunately I had several rendering issues with Safari that quickly drove me back to my coveted Gecko rendering engine and Firefox. Camino, then Chimera, wasn't nearly robust enough for my limited patience. Firefox had the pinstripe theme that I loved so much, and all was well with the world.

Not long ago I started exploring Camino again. Camino, you'll recall, is an open source browser written by the Mozilla Foundation natively for OS X. It does use the Gecko rendering engine and that means everything loads properly and looks nice. With utilities like CamiTools and CaminIcon, Camino looks and feels like the ideal browser. With the speed, performance, and localized look and feel of Safari combined with the rendering power and accuracy of Gecko it's hard to go wrong.

So why even consider Firefox here at home? In what possible way can it compete with Camino? Well, it's the little things. To begin with, I am not part of Camino's target userbase. Camino is designed to replace Safari, not Firefox. As a result certain little features that I enjoy are missing or different. As a heavy tab user, I instinctively attempt to use Command+number to switch tabs. It works in Adium, which I use for chat, and it works in iTerm, which I live in for my terminal. In Safari and Camino the behavior is to open the corresponding single bookmark on the bookmark bar. I like to blog, but when I press Command-1 I'm trying to get to the first tab not trying to open my blog bookmarklet!

While on the subject of tabs I'd just like to mention that I'm a huge fan of reorganizing my tabs and that means dragging them. Firefox can do it. Camino can't.

This is not to say Camino isn't improving. It is! I hang onto the latest nightlies and I adore the progress they've made. My browsing experience has improved tenfold by sticking to these bleeding edge builds instead of the stable. Unfortunately there are certain behaviors that I'm unwilling to give up. While I hope they become options some day, I am not and have never been much of a Safari user and that makes it tough. Especially with the performance boost Firefox 2.0 has received.

So I'll see you on the browser flip side, folks. Times and opinions keep on changing here.