Thinkpad Users/ Mac Users

Same can be said for thinkpad users.

Thanks! I was looking for the thread post that said which museum but couldnt find it.

 

Thanks. I'll check it out.

 

Here is more info about the ThinkPad 701 at the MoMA:

MoMA | The Collection | Sam Lucente, Richard Sapper, Robert P. Tennant and IBM Corporation. Think Pad 701 Portable Computer. 1995

Here is a video also from MoMA:

YouTube - ThinkPad 701C. Nicknamed "Butterfly"

 

Hi, I just signed on this board after picking up an X120E.

Well, I have to comment on this because I am professional Mac User.

I manage IBM x3950M2 servers. I build XEN virtual farms. I've managed UNIX/LINUX clusters and servers for over a decade. I would consider myself very technical. I use a MacBook Pro.

Most of my colleagues who are UNIX administrators (old school Solaris, Irix, AIX) all use MacBook Pros. All of my vendors and clients and my equivalents at our competition uses MacBook Pros.

Don't get me wrong. I am platform agnostic and I love Thinkpads and IBM hardware. I know Lenovo owns the brand now but I've always been an IBM & Thinkpad user. I've always appreciated the professional no-nonsense approach. As for Lenovo, I'm having an open-mind and hope they can carry on the tradition that IBM started.

Most highly technical and professional users uses MacBooks because of OSX. OSX is a very good desktop UNIX workstation OS. I also run Linux but there is simply no comparison. You can run major apps and well as GNU Unix and X11 applications on a Mac. I run, test, develop and deploy many types of OSes and Macs are good for Virtualization Host.

I plan to get another 15" Macbook Pro w/the Thunderbolt I/O once the tech matures. I deal with a lot of bandwidth, copying large terabytes of files and the thunderbolt looks promising.

Lastly, these are just tools. I don't think or characterize users on what OS/Laptop they use.

In my line of business, MacBook Pro and Thinkpad users are very similar people and have similar mindset. They want good tools to work with.

 

Lucky for you.

I'm in grad school for anesthesia and the majority of Macbook Pro users (coincidentally they are all the base 13" models...) don't even know how to categorize their folders, create a symbolic link for their Dropbox for safe homework backups, etc. The only thing they say when I make fun of them for it is, "well at least I'll never get a virus!". They all drank the cool-aid.
I even have to show some of them how to edit their .mp3 recordings off a Sony digital recorder after lecture so they can categorize them effectively in iTunes, sheesh.

 

This bears repeating. At times I've been guilty of this, but for the most part I tend to care more about what somebody's doing with their laptop than what brand the laptop is. There were plenty of cool talks at this year's HOPE given using MacBooks and I didn't think any less of the speakers who gave them. I also saw a lot of neat code running on ThinkPads, Dells, and even no-name ODM boxes.

 

I wish more people would understand laptops as just tools as well. I will always buy business laptops for their reliability, support, durability, etc. and love the Thinkpad design, but I think its odd that I have to consider appearance and brand a major factor in purchases. One simply looks better to many clients/etc when one shows up with a Thinkpad, Latitude, or EliteBook instead of a Acer or a non name ODM box.

 

I guess you could consider the brand to be part of the functionality, depending on what you do. If you're a sales rep who needs to look good in front of a client, then I can definitely see how choosing a particular brand based on its image might make more sense.

My main reasons for buying a ThinkPad are excellent Linux support, a good keyboard, and a utilitarian design. The last one is nowhere near as important as the other two.

 

The 701 was a cool laptop.

You did remind me of the one design that I worked on that (IMO) IBM got very wrong -the ThinkPad 720. Not because of the 486SLC processor (no great shakes, with weak math performance), nor the Microchannel architecture IBM was fond of then.

Nope --this was the one laptop where I made a huge assumption, that like most other ThinkPads, it should be easy to swap a keyboard for a customer back in my computer shop days. Ordered the keyboard, and when they left (I told them it would probably take an hour) I found out I had to remove the entire guts of the unit, through the bottom, to replace the keyboard. Why in heaven's name they didn't make it a KISS procedure like modern laptops do is beyond me, but whoever designed that series should have been taken to the woodshed for something so mind-bogglingly stupid.

I'm thankful to say I haven't seen that big of a design blunder in a long time.

 

Ouch.

I still remember what first impressed me about ThinkPads: I watched my father upgrade the drive in his 750c by pulling the screen latches extra hard, swinging up the keyboard, and simply lifting out the drive. He popped a new drive into place, pushed the keyboard down, and that was that. No screws, and it took about 30 seconds. That was cool.

It was fast enough to do the procedure that he didn't bother mucking about with bootloaders, etc. (early 90s, so double-booting nowhere near as straightforward as it is now); when he wanted to switch from OS/2 to DOS/Windows he simply powered off the ThinkPad and swapped the drive.

 

A tool in my toolbox:

​

 

Well, your observations are your own.

"All the Mac Users" I know are compiling kernels, writing bash scripts, designing databases, writing/programming applications, developing cluster farms of supercomputers,etc...

Most of the guys I know over the XDA site who root Android phones are MacBook Users.

If you go to visit Google's campus in Mountain View, a majority of the system administrators, programmers are using MacBook Pros.

Again, I guess they're all drinking the cool-aid.

 

You took my statement the wrong way.

Go to any college campus, almost every laptop you see will be an Apple.
Of the group that makes up my class, there is only one who actually knows how to use it to its full potential.
I bet if you asked any of them knew their computer was running an OS based on UNIX, they would say "nuh-uh, it runs the virus-proof OS X!!"

 

This is true if "it" is any computer. Not all students are technically adept: to them, the laptop is a tool, plain and simple. Not all Computer Science students are comfortable with hardware (they may focus on databases, for example). Not all Electrical Engineering students care about repairing laptops (they may focus on telecommunications, for example).

Corporate folks who are assigned ThinkPads or Latitudes or Macs consider them tools, too, and they don't have to prove to anyone that they are technically adept: their job expertise and performance are much more important!

 

I agree with Kaso. That seems to have more to do with the technical proficiency of the user than what brand of laptop they use. It doesn't really strike me as a "Mac user vs $brand user" type of thing.

As a former part-time tech. support rep, I assure you: both Apple users and non-Apple user are capable of a number of wild, laughable misconceptions.

 

*faints*

 

There are various types of Apple users, there are some people whom purchase Macs because they want a simple OS interface, there are those purchase it because it has a clean looking design but still like windows based os (hence why bootcamp was included), then there are those whom dislike Microsoft and do not want to use OS from them (obviously these people can also run Linux on a normal PC, etc).

A lot of applications for Biomedical researches are made specifically for OS X and also earlier variants of Mac, Apple have a strong presence in the education sectors in many Western countries.

But in the end you could use either systems, personally i don't mind MBP or MB Air laptops, their clean design is very appealing. But there are shortcomings in the new MBP integrated battery design and its lack lustrous cooling systems (which have been plaguing their systems since the Aluminium Powerbook G4).

 

It used to be mostly apple, now netbooks are already in the majority (but thats in the history section, we only need to use word, its prolly a totally different story for engineers).

 

I have to agree on the whole 2 types of apple users.

In the beginning users who used apple seemed to be a different breed of people compared to the majority of apple users today.

I think the first type is still there but I think the majority (the people upgrading yearly every revision) are not the people who will know their way around inside a laptop

 

While somewhat true, I have found that this has decreased over time.

Apple has let the educational community down a lot since their "we're big supporters of education" days. They've dropped the XServe, the XSAN, and enterprise products. Their enterprise networking support is honestly pathetic --it is far harder for me to find solutions when networking Macs than it is Wintel boxes. This limits their effectiveness in a multi-user, networked environment. In fact, at this point if starting out new, you have the choice of either authenticating Macs through Windows Active Directory (oh, and Apple's documentation for this only goes up to Server 2003), or buying Mac Minis or Mac Pro towers to run OS X Server on them, which is far from ideal. OS X Lion Server is supposed to have a new networking architecture, but how useful is that when I can't run it as a VMWare virtual machine -which at this point, is what I need if Apple won't provide enterprise server hardware?

Their attempts to shore this up (e.g., by buying the PowerSchool grading/attendance software company which they later sold to Pearson) have been lacking in direction. This leaves their reputation for artistic creativity, and video editing. I will give Apple credit for professional video editing, but a lot of the artistic creation or publishing packages are available on the Windows platform as well.

From someone who works in the ed-tech environment, I might buy a lab of Macs for the right application. I wouldn't fill a whole school with them, not without a lot of changes from Apple, such as their ability to provide support when wierd things happen with the underlying network structure of OS X.

 

Since at the end of the day, we are only still talking about sterotypes, let me ask you folks this: Who do you think is more possessive (including taking pride in) about their machines - ThinkPad owners/ users or Mac Users/ Owners?

 

I don't think the question is who is more possessive.

I think the question is possessive about what?

WARNING: Sterotypes

I think mac users are more possessive about their style and looks while ThinkPad users are more possessive about their power, durability, and reliablitiy.

 

I wouldn't quite call the ThinkPad user base possessive. Some of us are - those of us who are fans. The greater portion of ThinkPad users view it as a tool alone, albeit an effective one.

Apple users are rabid at times, and the fanboism repels those who are attracted to the discreetness of a ThinkPad's design. The glowing apple logo on the back of MacBooks is an icon, a status symbol, and an aesthetic choice. While I enjoy good aesthetics, I prefer to choose my own style symbols, and the ThinkPad represents a blank slate upon which I can create my own style. More than one of my ThinkPads have ended up tastefully stickered, or otherwise marked with a visual log of our adventures together, proclaiming OS choices, locations traveled to/visited, and various imagery of life. (My T22 still sports a much loved Catbert sticker from my Dilbert-obsessed period.)

 

@LoneWolf15, i think Apple has changed their focus about education sector, they want to be seen and want to make a healthy profit from this market sector.

Also, many of the biomedical researches require more processing power (i.e. protein folding and disease models, etc), and cloud computing will be more important.

 

I am possessive about the style and looks of my two ThinkPads... I am also thrilled with their robustness (durability) and reliability (thus far).

 

Sell my MBP today and ordered T420

 

I've just migrated over to a Thinkpad X201 after using a Macbook Pro 13" (Mid 2009) for 2 years - which I'll be selling soon. I used to own and use a Macbook Unibody 13" (Late 2008) before that too.

The main reasons for migrating was because I wanted something more portable with longer battery life (and because it's easier to relate to work since I use and predominantly support Windows machines).

I still like Macs and OS X however. I've made a time machine backup of my OS X installation and plan to purchase a used iMac on which I can restore the image onto - and start where I left off again!

 

If that's true, Apple honestly needs to do the one thing they'd also need to do to be widely accepted in the business world --client-server networking support.

While it's not impossible to do client-server networking with Macs, it's a lot more painful than Wintel boxes, and has a lot poorer support from Apple.

 

Obviously Apple is not focused on that part of business anyway.... they only focuses on things that has a high turnover and generate enough marketing hype. So basically they are the new Sony of the 21st century.

 

Excuse my post, but this is for fanboys:

If I was to stereotype a Mac user and a PC, I'd say we're talking about the same people. People aren't like us notebook enthusiast,... I'll just say it people aren't like us "nerds" they don't care what notebook they get as long as it works or looks good. Even the knowledgeable people that know a lot about computers use cheap PC's. I see a majority of Mac users don't know much about computers, the same can be said about PC users. Once in a while you get someone that knows a lot about computers use a Mac, and those numbers roughly match the knowledgeable PC user. In my major I get to see a lot of Computers Scientist, Computer Engineers, and Electrical Engineers and this is what I've observed. A long time ago those that used Macs were people that dealt with photography and other specialized "stuff". Macs now appeal to the everyday consumer, if I had a mac I probably wouldn't mind, but after spending 15 minutes with one I knew it wasn't for me. Get what you want only nerds argue about pointless things like this. .....Yeah I'm a nerd.

 

Yes the photography and music producers do tend to flock to the Apple systems, most of the photography studios i know use an Apple system of some sort (probably due to the superior screen and the good software package).

 

I never understood why those in the arts flock to mac. I think it is simply the design element of the machine and the creative atmosphere that has built up around Apple.

I am anamatur photographer and the Adobe suit runs excellent on a PC. In fact I have used Adove CS on both Mac and PC and I prefer the PC UI layout better. Performance is just the same on both platforms.

When it comes to displays machines like the T500 series and W series have amazing FHD screens.

Music production I can understand, but than when it comes to Animation software and video software. The PC platform has programs just as good. (ex: Sony Vegas)

 

if you see many of architectural and photography studio, their computer work desk are usually very clean and much of their furniture is colour coordinated. Lot of these people say they can't stand the clutter, so that is why go with say an iMac of some sort.

In some ways i do tend to agree with them, since i do find my productivity rise a bit working in these clean offices.

 

That's simply a crazy statement. Are you suggesting that clean/ uncluttered work environments are somehow connected to the use of Macs?

 

no what i mean is that these photography/specific designer people whom want a clean and uncluttered office tend to choose Mac as their main computer (they also choose it because of the colour coordination).

Their Mac is part of the office furniture when they are not using it.

 

Are you serious? Is this really how some people think about their machines/ equipment?

 

I guess if you work at an ad agency or design firm, maybe. I don't.

But there are two kinds or people. People that like an uncluttered desk, and those that don't care. I like an uncluttered desk but I'm not running out to buy an iMac as a result.

 

I totally know what lead_org is talking about and I don't really have a problem with that at all. When not in use, hey, why not have it compliment with the furniture/chair/lamp/desk around the computer and vice-versa? Also many of the Mac users have both an Apple desktop and laptop that compliment each other whereas most of us here probably don't have a ThinkCentre or another IBM/Lenovo desktop to go along with our ThinkPad.

If you search up Post Your Mac Setup on google, you'll see that the setup they have is pretty neat, organized, clean, etc... like what lead_org said. The fact that these Mac's are mostly plain white makes the Mac owners want simplicity at their workstation.

 

I think my ThinkPads complement the interior design of my home and office quite well...thank you very much! But I do get your point though I am a bit taken aback by the fact that some users (primarily of Macs) also consider this as part of their buying decision.

 

for some people yes.

 

Of course, aesthetics has a role in our decision making process. Computers have become mainstream and most homes have a dedicated area for the computer. It's natural that "most" users will seek a balance between form and function.

This is where Apple has made great strides. Let's be honest, I haven't seen any "ugly" apple computers and most would look very stylish in any home. They're aren't the most powerful gaming/engineering machines but there is very "little" an Apple computer won't handle.

In the end, to each his own, there's no point in belittling or criticizing anyone's choices. As to the comment that Apple users are neat and tidy. Will someone reiterate that to my other half. A group of swines would create less mess than she and her MBP do.

C.

 

On that note (particularly the part in bold), I would suggest that the ThinkPad is spectacularly stylish, if a bit understated!

But then again, I am offering a biased opinion.

 

I agree with the general sentiment here. The only laptops I'd ever consider are Lenovo and Apple.

While my macbook pro is my primary computer and I use it for my photo work as well (Thinkpad screens are unfortunately poor), for other work I want my Thinkpad (Office sucks on mac, I need proprietary software that is only very poorly available on mac via java) and I need something strong I don't mind getting relatively battered while working on location (I go ape when soemthing marks my mac).

I agree that we pay a premium for style and innovation and of course the user experience (great keyboards, great mac touchpad, build quality).

Externally, in my mind (I work in fashion so bear with me), the mac is a female in an evening dress and the Thinkpad is a male in a Tom Ford suit. In car terms a Range Rover to a Land Rover Defender. Both are great, one likes to be beaten the other cosseted.

 

In terms of philosophy a Mac and ThinkPad are probably the only notebooks I would buy.


...HP has been good to me too. <---- Best Bang for the Buck.

 

With that in mind, that is why any educational institution of size (with foresight, at least) should avoid them as much as possible until this changes.

I think the Macbook Pro is a really nice computer, and I have nothing against OS X. I just think that until Apple can actually assign a dedicated team to enterprise networking (with a possible focus on K-12 situations, which would really give them something to brag about), they're best as machines for individuals only.

 

@lonewolf15, i think the demand for Apple products are more from the consumer end and not from the education institutions, which might as well since collectively the consumers have more buying power.

The only thing i see Apple is pushing to the schools are iPad related stuffs, and not so much laptops or desktops. This is probably is in line with the CEO Jobs view that products like iPad has more market potential then say traditional laptops and desktops.

 

Well Im a thinkpad user and my desk is cluttered and messy...but then again I do have a ton of stuff at work and I also have the smallest cubicle so its impossible to not be cluttered.

 

My wifes a teacher and all the elementary schools and middle schools use macs only. Also all the teachers are issued macbooks. While we are only one county, thats still millions of revenue. But then again they only upgrade every 3-4 years.

 

I think Apple wants people to upgrade more often and also the fact that purchase of apps from their online stores is a steady revenue generator. Obviously Apple wont completely abandon education institutions but it probably won't invest more marketing dollar to get more people to purchase more desktops etc.

 

Agreed. Our county's school system is small potatoes in the grand scheme of things. As for wanting people to keep buying I would think every oem company would want people to buy as often as possible. I don't think they would be 100% happy unless everyone bought a computer a day for the rest of their lives.