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ThinkPad T410 or MBP 15?
- Thread starter ladeer
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As much as I love my Mac, for what you are looking for, you are better of sticking with Windows, which in turn, means the Lenovo. You could always install just Windows on the Mac, but what good is a Mac if it can't run OS X?
I just bought a dozen T410's for my company. (I had to. 
)
They're ok but I'm really disappointed in the build quality.
My god what crap they ship with the Windows OS these days. And Lenovo (like all OEM's) has their own flavor of networking apps, configuration apps, diagnostic apps, etc... all nagging for your attention with useless pop-ups and filling up the Windows tray just sucking up resources. The startup registry had no less than 20 different items being loaded up on boot. It took 3 minutes. I narrowed it down to "zero".
Use VMWARE/Parallels for your windows tasks when you have to but be glad windows is not your primary OS. (I've been a windows user since 3.0)
I am one of the few in my company that uses a mac. Anything they can do with their windows machine I can do better and have proved it many times. Someone with your experience should be able to do the same.
)They're ok but I'm really disappointed in the build quality.
My god what crap they ship with the Windows OS these days. And Lenovo (like all OEM's) has their own flavor of networking apps, configuration apps, diagnostic apps, etc... all nagging for your attention with useless pop-ups and filling up the Windows tray just sucking up resources. The startup registry had no less than 20 different items being loaded up on boot. It took 3 minutes. I narrowed it down to "zero".
Use VMWARE/Parallels for your windows tasks when you have to but be glad windows is not your primary OS. (I've been a windows user since 3.0)
I am one of the few in my company that uses a mac. Anything they can do with their windows machine I can do better and have proved it many times. Someone with your experience should be able to do the same.
I just bought a dozen T410's for my company. (I had to.
They're ok but I'm really disappointed in the build quality.
My god what crap they ship with the Windows OS these days. And Lenovo (like all OEM's) has their own flavor of networking apps, configuration apps, diagnostic apps, etc... all nagging for your attention with useless pop-ups and filling up the Windows tray just sucking up resources. The startup registry had no less than 20 different items being loaded up on boot. It took 3 minutes. I narrowed it down to "zero".
Use VMWARE/Parallels for your windows tasks when you have to but be glad windows is not your primary OS. (I've been a windows user since 3.0)
I agree with the build quality of the Lenovos. They have gone downhill since buying IBM out.
Most likely, his company's IT will make an image of the machine to meet their specific needs; in which case, the Lenovo bloatware shouldn't be on there.
Just so you know u can take a full screen shot via cmd shift 3 and also a selected area screenshot via cmd shift 4, auto saves to the desktop drag and drop from there. Much better than print screen into paint lol. There's windows version of the ss in win7 that works better than paint also.
For end delete etc I remapped \ to delete forward and better touch tool to take care of home end.
Actually forget what I said get the thinkpad.
For end delete etc I remapped \ to delete forward and better touch tool to take care of home end.
Actually forget what I said get the thinkpad.
I'm in the same situation - using pc refresh to switch from thinkpad to mbp, same story for support,messaging, calendaring. Wonder if we work for the same company .
The answer really depends on your what you do with computer, if you spend most of the time in windows-specific applications and their performance is critical for you than pick pc, thinkpads are great workhorses and can go a long way (10yo thinkpad user here). In my case(sw development targeted unix-based platform) osx would be a better choice than windows and messaging/calendaring is just an inconvenience that I could deal with.
Self-support is not an issue (to me) and actually preferable, most of the problems are not unique and have already been met/described and likely solved by someone else. There's actually quite big benefit in this non-support of mac by your company's IT - you're not running custom windows installation full of security agents/antivirus/whatnot agents that would slow computer and your productivity.
Hardware specs are nice but not critical as are comfort of the work and improved productivity.
If your co-workers have the same work requirements ask them how they deal with these problems.
.The answer really depends on your what you do with computer, if you spend most of the time in windows-specific applications and their performance is critical for you than pick pc, thinkpads are great workhorses and can go a long way (10yo thinkpad user here). In my case(sw development targeted unix-based platform) osx would be a better choice than windows and messaging/calendaring is just an inconvenience that I could deal with.
Self-support is not an issue (to me) and actually preferable, most of the problems are not unique and have already been met/described and likely solved by someone else. There's actually quite big benefit in this non-support of mac by your company's IT - you're not running custom windows installation full of security agents/antivirus/whatnot agents that would slow computer and your productivity.
Hardware specs are nice but not critical as are comfort of the work and improved productivity.
If your co-workers have the same work requirements ask them how they deal with these problems.
Am I the only one to think that this migration to Macs hasn't been well thought through?
Outlook 2011 requires a minimum of Exchange 2007. If they're still on 2003, they shouldn't be as I don't think 2003 is fully supported (if at all)!
When an important migration like this is to take place, integration testing and investment in user support (including courses) are vital. Making users do their own support is a bit stupid in my opinion for many reasons and should definitely be the IT dept's job!
Personally, I don't have a problem with OSX's 2-3 key shortcuts. Its something you'd get used to over time. Also, I find doing screen shots (or dumps of selected screen areas) far easier on OSX.
The real issue here is how long will it take you to get used to OSX in the workplace? If you have the patience, go with the Mac (if all integration testing goes well) otherwise go with the T410 because at the end of the day, we all like to get our work done ASAP and get the hell out rather than being bogged down and delayed by technical problems.
Outlook 2011 requires a minimum of Exchange 2007. If they're still on 2003, they shouldn't be as I don't think 2003 is fully supported (if at all)!
When an important migration like this is to take place, integration testing and investment in user support (including courses) are vital. Making users do their own support is a bit stupid in my opinion for many reasons and should definitely be the IT dept's job!
Personally, I don't have a problem with OSX's 2-3 key shortcuts. Its something you'd get used to over time. Also, I find doing screen shots (or dumps of selected screen areas) far easier on OSX.
The real issue here is how long will it take you to get used to OSX in the workplace? If you have the patience, go with the Mac (if all integration testing goes well) otherwise go with the T410 because at the end of the day, we all like to get our work done ASAP and get the hell out rather than being bogged down and delayed by technical problems.
I just bought a dozen T410's for my company. (I had to.
They're ok but I'm really disappointed in the build quality.
My god what crap they ship with the Windows OS these days. And Lenovo (like all OEM's) has their own flavor of networking apps, configuration apps, diagnostic apps, etc... all nagging for your attention with useless pop-ups and filling up the Windows tray just sucking up resources. The startup registry had no less than 20 different items being loaded up on boot. It took 3 minutes. I narrowed it down to "zero".
Use VMWARE/Parallels for your windows tasks when you have to but be glad windows is not your primary OS. (I've been a windows user since 3.0)
I am one of the few in my company that uses a mac. Anything they can do with their windows machine I can do better and have proved it many times. Someone with your experience should be able to do the same.
It's a sad day when one reads a post filled with so much misleading info as this one above
I've run PowerBooks, MacBook Pro's, and T series ThinkPads _concurrently_ for over a decade as my work machines. The Apple and ThinkPad laptops are both top of the line in their respective Operating Systems.
I'm a multi-platformist, and do a wide variety of tech work for a living. Therefore I have years of hands on experience with both platforms. Both brands are excellent.
The passage above trashing windows is all designed to mislead those who are reading this thread.
ThinkPads (especially T series) are _corporate_ machines with great security and safety apps built in.
I personally have a T410 and out of the box it takes just 45 seconds to boot to the desktop.
Do yourself a favor and ignore what you've read above. It fails to contain any facts.
Cheers...
It's a sad day when one reads a post filled with so much misleading info as this one above
I've run PowerBooks, MacBook Pro's, and T series ThinkPads _concurrently_ for over a decade as my work machines. The Apple and ThinkPad laptops are both top of the line in their respective Operating Systems.
I'm a multi-platformist, and do a wide variety of tech work for a living. Therefore I have years of hands on experience with both platforms. Both brands are excellent.
The passage above trashing windows is all designed to mislead those who are reading this thread.
ThinkPads (especially T series) are _corporate_ machines with great security and safety apps built in.
I personally have a T410 and out of the box it takes just 45 seconds to boot to the desktop.
Do yourself a favor and ignore what you've read above. It fails to contain any facts.
Cheers...
+1
I've had 4 ThinkPads, never a problem, and the extra apps actually are designed to be better than the built in windows ones and help one with use. (such as WiFi)
Plus, the OP gets one with an SSD drive, so that will dramatically increase boot. But, we didn't come here to discuss boot times.
OP, I honestly think you'd be better off with a PC.
It seems like you really want the Mac, however there are some sacrifices you have to make, such as your mail server. If you can live with those, go for the Mac, however if it's a problem, just choose the ThinkPad. They are well built, corporate machines that are designed to take a beating, and probably would withstand a liquid spill or a drop better than a MacBook Pro.
All in all, none of us can really help you decide, you must choose if you can make the sacrifices for your exchange server and such to condone the PC over the Mac.