I have a Dell and a mini IPOD. I havent used the Dell since I got the IPOD. The limitation of the IPOD is certainly battery life. Mine ran out on a MR yesterday but pretty close to the end so it wasnt too much of a hassle. I usually charge it off my Powerbook but wasnt carrying that yesterday. There are a number of charge options available for IPODs to boost the playing time however. 8 hours or so, which I get off the mini isnt really enough. Even 10 isnt enough while I have used my Dell almost non-stop on JFK-SFO-PVG. I will be buying some booster or in flight charger or both for mine to deal with this.

Despite that, and the new IPOD has a better battery by the way, the reason I use the IPOD is the software for ripping, buying and loading music. In my opinion iTunes is vastly superior to the software that comes with the Dell. So much so that I cant bring myself to even deal with adding more songs to the Dell although I should work up the courage eventually.