Dell XPS One vs iMac - it's all in the software

Stan Beer
Sunday, 18 November 2007 14:09

Opinion and Analysis

As it stands, the main differentiator between the Dell XPS One and the Apple iMac is not which has the better hardware but which has the better software. Looking at the two systems side by side then, the first question that home users will want answered is which system is easier to use?

In other words, which of the Leopard or Vista operating systems will be more transparent to the user? Which will provide the more integrated software and hardware package?

Another question - which will be safer to use? Sorry to bring up the old security issue but Dell itself has highlighted it by chucking in a 15 month anti-virus subscription with the XPS One package. Aside from protection against viruses, which system better frees novice and lazy users from having to worry about backing up their data?

How about this one - which system enables a user to run both Vista and Leopard?

This article is not meant to be an advertisement for Apple or the iMac. It is simply designed to make the point that when discussing the class of system defined by XPS One and the iMac, the real issue is the software not the hardware.

Even when hardware does matter, it's because you need it to take advantage of available software. Think of all those PC games that the XPS One could be taking advantage of if it had a better GPU.

The fact of the matter is that computer hardware, no matter how good, is a commodity that loses value as fast as Moore's Law applies. Today's state of the art 20 inch 1680 x 1050 high-res monitor is tomorrow's obsolete display compared to 24 inch 1920 x 1080 HDTV capable monitors (or 1920 x 1200 in the case of Apple) which will become the standard.

Good software, however, has longevity. Users take it with them each time they upgrade to a new machine.

So all things being relatively equal, the question for many users when choosing between the XPS One and the iMac will be which provides the better user experience. And in this case that will be defined by the software.