No, don’t get excited, Google hasn’t released the Mac and Linux versions of its new browser just yet, but here’s the next best thing. The good folks over at Code Weavers have come out with a way to run the Windows version of Google’s Chrome on non-Windows computers. They’ve used Wine to make it run on the other OS’s and they’ve called their creation Cross Over Chromium.

I’m running a Mac, so I’ll be talking only about the Mac version here, but I would guess the Linux version can’t be too different.

When you start it up for the first time it takes 2-3 minutes to initialize itself and then you’re presented with the main Chrome window. It appears to function exactly like the Windows version, if not a touch clunkier. Now keep in mind it is just the Windows version, running on your Mac or Linux machine thanks to Wine and so it looks very much like a Windows app. Just take a look at some of the menus.

It seems to load pages just about as fast as it does on Windows, although I haven’t done any scientific testing.

You can also do some of the funky things that Chrome does on Windows, like pull tabs out of the browser to create new windows…

… and create application shortcuts, although after creating the shortcut, I couldn’t find where Cross Over Chromium put it.

Code Weavers says you are not meant to use this as your main browser and I would agree, but if you’re a Mac or Linux user and are just dying to try out Chrome, then this might be for you.

Are you desperate enough to get Chrome on your Mac/Linux machine that you’d use this? Or is Chrome all just a bunch of hype?