It was only a matter of time before Apple relented and gave people an easy way to run Windows XP on its iMacs - and today it introduced Boot Camp to do just that.

We asked Apple reps about running XP on an Intel-based Mac when they first came out, and were told that while it was possible, they weren't going to tell us how to do it.

Then last month a competition to run Windows on a Mac was won, and from that point Apple was always going to swiftly offer its own software.

Boot Camp is a great move by Apple (love the name too), because it makes the iMac even more attractive, especially as some core software, such as Adobe Photoshop, can't yet run natively on the machine. Plus it means games not available on the Mac can now be played.

Later this year it will be integrated into Leopard, Apple's next release of the Mac OS X operating system.

But it won't cause Microsoft any real heartache either - not in the short term anyway - because you do need a copy of Windows XP to load onto the iMac. That does mean swelling Microsoft's coffers, which may be a step too far for some Apple aficionados though.