S3 browser

Pros

• Freeware
• Full-featured S3 client

Cons

• Mac Finder supports S3

S3 Browser for Mac lets you upload to and download from any S3 and S3-compatible cloud storage.

S3 is a service offered by Amazon that stands for Simple Storage Service. It provides a scalable way to store data objects using a web interface—or in this case, a desktop interface. There are many usage scenarios for S3, including application storage, backup and recovery, cloud storage, data analytics and so forth. In addition, there is an S3 API available, and this allows developers to create S3-compatible alternatives to the Amazon service or ancillary services meant to be used alongside S3.

S3 Browser for Mac—which is also available for Windows and Linux—is a tool that lets you connect to an S3 or S3-compatible storage server. It provides filesystem integration so that you can move data back and forth between your system and the server. As with all S3 clients, you must enter your access identification number as well as your secret key in order to gain read and write access.

The top-level view is buckets, which is how S3 is organized. These are essentially top-level folders that have unique names. Each bucket can have its own policy, which can dictate who has access and what kind of data can be stored within, and you can edit those policies from within this client. You can also limit the mount to a specific bucket so that you are accessing only the data you need.

Writing objects to and from the S3 server and your desktop Mac may not be particularly useful. However, S3 defines object in the broadest sense possible. You can create a bucket as well as subfolders that will hold images, text documents, music files, videos or whatever else you want to preserve, and all of that is possible using this S3 Browser.

S3 Browser for Mac is not the most sophisticated S3 browser on the market. It is free to use, but there are other S3 clients that are also free but more sophisticated and which have remained in active development. While excellent at the time it was released, this S3 Browser seems a bit clunky in retrospect. The multi-window approach in particular seems like a dinosaur.

Another potential issue is that you can mount S3 via Finder. So, whether you use basic Finder or one of the more sophisticated alternatives, you can mount one or more S3 storages or even individual buckets. Using Finder is a convenient option when you need basic read and write access rather than some of the more advanced functionality S3 provides.

Pros

• Freeware
• Full-featured S3 client

Cons

• Mac Finder supports S3