What has changed, though, is that you can now run a close relative of Chrome on your Mac--and no, I don't mean the Windows version of Chrome in VMware Fusion or Parallels Desktop for Mac. I mean a real, live, honest-to-gosh version of (what will eventually be) Chrome that runs directly in OS X. How, you might ask? First, a bit of background.

Much like Apple's Safari browser is based on the open-source project, Chrome is based on , another open-source project. To further muddy the waters, Chrome itself uses WebKit, so Chromium also incorporates the WebKit open source project. As a user, though, all that really matters is that Chromium builds are now available for OS X. While this isn't Chrome for OS X, it's a very good look at what will become Chrome for OS X. As such, I thought I'd download a build and check out the state of Chrome-to-be on the Mac.

Please note that the following is a review in any way, shape or form. It's merely a look at Chromium as it exists today, to give you a sense for its state of development. Things that are broken or not working at all are fully expected in software at this stage of the development process; I point out the problem areas only so you'll know what you're getting into if you decide to download Chromium yourself.

If you're interested trying Chromium, you can . The download page contains a ton of folders, each with a unique number and timestamp. To get the newest build, scroll to the bottom of the page, and click the folder above the entry that reads LATEST. Note that things are changing rapidly--in the time it took me to write this First Look, there have been new builds posted, and a total of nearly 50 for the whole day.