Already documented by others from the perspective of a Safari user, it is possible to live a (mostly) Flash free online life. It only takes a few steps to set up. Gand (aka Carlo Gandolfi), member of FreeSMUG, has documented how to handle this when you are a Camino user. He authored a short applescript to ease & automate the process of opening the current Camino page in Chrome, for those few moments when the page really needs Flash to make sense.

As I prefer to use the keyboard for these kind actions, I converted Gand’s script to an Automator workflow which appears in the Services menu on OS X 10.6. This allows me to assign a keyboard shortcut using the Keyboard pane of System preferences (customise how to) – I choose ⌘⌃G (Command-Control G).

Download the open url in google chrome workflow for OS X 10.6.

Usage:

  • download and unzip
  • move the workflow into ~/Library/Services

And that is it; the workflow should appear from the Services menu when you run Camino (you might need to log out before the service is recognized though). You can then assign a keyboard shortcut.

Note(s)
  1. I actually have a more complex workflow than described, as I use both Safari and Google Chrome. Safari is used to view Vimeo and Youtube videos (configured as described by Grubber & Frank linked above). Google Chrome is used for other sites, when Flash is required.
  2. It is easy to add a Chrome icon to the file if desired
    • In the Finder navigate to Chrome and Get Info (⌘ I), copy the little icon at the top of the File Info window
    • Navigate to the .workflow file, Get Info again and paste the icon.