yet another mac vs thinkpad thread

[bigtiger]

I have been long looking for a chance to own a mac machine. Beginning from 2007, I have owned one ibook, one powerbook G4 1.5G and one powerbook G4 titanium 867Mhz. I here offer some my experience for those who want to own a mac.

First, I would like to say that forgot about ibook series. They are good machines but in my opinion, they are just like dells. many problems. I do not want list them.

Powerbook line laptops are pretty good, although I would say thinkpad x series are as good as them, if not better.

Thirdly, I have to say that mac os x is very very good operating system. I freshly installed each mac that I have owned or currently own. Being a new user, I didnot do too much tweaking. But every mac works like a charm and never a crash. Sometime, I may see a prolonged thinking periods but eventually, it will recover from it. IN a pc, I would have thought a reboot is needed.

Fourthly, performance wise, even for multimedia stuff, I do not think there is a big difference. I do multimedia stuff. I tried finalcut on my powerbook 1.5G and compared it to Adobe Premier on my wife's X31. I have to say, there is not too much difference. Finalcut works a little fast and smooth but not significantly faster.

I have never owned a Macbook pro. But a refurbished high end powerbook (for example powerbook g4 1.5g) is about the same price as my X60S. I would keep my X60s. No question asked. X60s is simply better in every bit.

need to stop for now. I will write more later.

Note from Moderator: Just mentioning ThinkPad in the subject line doesn't make it on-topic...

[dorronto]

Interesting post. I used a mac this weekend at a local mall Mac store communicating with the Forum here and I have to admit, it was enjoyable.

I've been thinking for awhile about trying a mac but, I want to start with something a little powerful and not to expensive. HA. Good luck. I'll keep looking. I dabble a little with linux, but nothing serious. I'll keep my eyes and ears open concerning Macs.........

Ron

[zyphria]

Well I've got a MacBook (Black, Core2Duo) and an X60 Tablet sitting in front of me as we speak.

For me, my Apple machine is for kicking back and researching online, playing around (productively), creative writing, working with photos/video. That's what it is touted for, and to be honest, that's what it does best for me.

That said, there is an absolutely huge UNIX/OpenBSD backend to the OS that really opens up the opportunities.

At the end of the day however, I managed Windows based PC's with Windows based servers, and they work, people know how to use them, and I know how to support them. It's neither a case of better or worse, just "this works for this, that works for that".

Oh, and if you're thinking of buying, hold out till June, new Santa Rosa-based units coming out, new display technology.

I compiled some links for a friend of mine who just got a Mac the other day, so if you want to get more of a taste, and clue-in a bit more here you go:

Applications

www.macupdate.com – Kind of a master list of Mac Apps
http://wakaba.c3.cx/s/apps/unarchiver.html - The Unarchiver Unzip/Unrar/uncompress just about anything, better than most commercial solutions.
http://freshsqueeze.com/products/freeware/ - Older freeware Apps, but still useful
http://inventive.us/iCliplite/ - Make sure you don’t visit the site with Internet Explorer , trust me

Hardware/Software News:
www.lifehacker.com
http://osxdaily.com/
http://theappleblog.com/
www.macminute.com
www.macrumors.com
www.thinksecret.com
www.tuaw.com

[dorronto]

Thanks for the links.

Ron

[schen]

I really like the OS and how everything just works...... but the sticking point for me........... I HATE touchpads!!!! Instrument of the devil.

[bill bolton]

but the sticking point for me........... I HATE touchpads!!!! Instrument of the devil.

Which is much of the point about the whole Apple world... you have to buy wholeheartedly into what Apple thinks is the right way to do things.

Good for some but not for others.

Cheers,

Bill

[Torque]

I switched from Thinkpads to Apple last summer. Then one month ago, I switched back to thinkpads. Wrote about it in another post, so i'll just copy/paste.
Just my 50 cents on Apple products. They aren't what they are hyped to be. And OS X crashes just as easy as XP or Vista. It depends on the 3rd party software.

-----------
The Macbook Pro does have some nice innovations. I liked the MagSafe connector and backlit keyboard. I didn't find the slot drive very good. It's nice not having to push out a tray, but the slot drive sounds like it's breaking every time it loads or ejects a CD. The camera? Well, that was fun for the first ten minutes I used it - of course different people have different needs, I just didnt need it. It's a very good sales gimmick, though. The screen was brigter than the 14,1" screen on my previous T41p, T43 and present T60 - but it's also very grainy. The coating (mine was matte) was very poor, and this is a common issue with alot of the 15,4" MBP's. Backlit keyboard was great in dim light conditions, but the keyboard itself is awful, just awful.

My MBP (over six months) went in for a new motherboard, slot-drive, keyboard, DC I/O module. I hated it at the end, and ended up going back.

But yes, the magnetic connector and backlit keyboard would be nice on a Thinkpad. The Thinklight isn't too bad though.



This is a post I made on a mac forum, just before selling it



I've been a Mac user for six months now - it's about to change though.
I'm not starting this thread to fire up a war between Mac's and PC's, OS X and windows. Only writing this to share my experience/opinion on the Macbook Pro and OS X in general, and hear others people's experiences.

I bought my Macbook Pro (2GHz CD, 1GB RM, 80GB 5400rpm, 4x SD, 15,4") some six months ago. The nice finish and first-hand rugged feeling persuaded me - along with OS X, the promise of a more comfortable "ride" without malware and other gibberish.

I was thrilled. Networking was pretty easy, although the same settings applied - they were just more logically placed. OS X has a very nice way of dealing with floating windows. Exposé is a great tool and a the dock seems like a good solution - at first..

Over time my fascination with OS X went away, and I started looking more at the Macbook Pro itself. The very build of the Pro was one of the things that really amazed me in the beginning. The MBP is gorgeous. It's properly engineered to look good - but the fun ends there. I understand why they push and push on to make it thinner. But maybe there's a reason the competition hasn't gone and made the cases so compact as is the case with the MBP. Remember, they all basically use the same components. These are standard. Apart from the logic board, made by ASUS I hear?

First, I've taken really good care of my MBP. I have really babied it. IT doesn't have -one- single scratch or dent, apart from one (very small one) on the bottom.

The laptop itself has some really bad inconsistencies. Stuff that really just should work, but seems a little strange and half-finished.

* My logic board needs replacing. After six months. If it was DOA, I could understand. But six months of use and then dead?
* The keyboard is rubbish when compared to the IBM I had. The keys look like they've been thrown on, some skewing and others just not lining up properly. The 'O' key has from day one been harder to activate than the others.
* The screen is grainy. This is a chipset issue (I've read), hopefully the new logic board will fix this.
* The trackpad button is inconsistent - the button is loose and makes a double clicking sound when pressed. Pretty bad for a very expensive laptop.
* It scratches waay to easily. Of course, I knew this when I bought it. Anodized aluminium isn't exactly robust.
* General stuff. Sometimes you have to hold the power-on button for three seconds to turn it on, other times it just goes on as soon as you touch it. It's worrying that your machine doesn't behave the same way every time you turn it on. The LEDs for the CAPS-LOCK and NUM-LOCK buttons build up charge, lighting when the buttons aren't on. This goes away when you press them, then builds up again. Rubbish.


The exoskeleton of the MBP works great for a really stiff build. But I'm afraid the way the exoskeleton work combined with the solid mounting and very compact fit inside, will lead to the components directly taking punishment for everything you subject the case to.
But the things that got to me is that in general, in ALL these things, it's just not a proper quality product. It's certainly not worth the extra cash. In my opinion, at least. It feels like a product in it's beta stage.

Software-wise I still like OS X. Not for being OS X, but for being a UNIX based platform with cute skin that (in most cases) keeps the user out of terminals.
To be honest, I would be just as happy with an Ubuntu install. As I see it, you have the same malware free environment, lots of great freeware, eyecandy (at your wish) and stability.

So, in the future it'll be an IBM T60 with Vista and Ubuntu.

[gator]

So, in the future it'll be an IBM T60 with Vista and Ubuntu.

Very wise decision, I was about to type this reply, except that I'd have said 'Suse on a IBM T60'. You guys have to see a OpenSuse installation on a T60. It'll blow you away.

[t20user]

I had contemplated a non-Thinkpad lappy in a post long time ago if Lenovo screwed up the line. So far it is looking good. A Mac or a business level HP were my second choices and after seeing them up close and poking at them I am happy to stay with a Thinkpad for now.