Vista, MBP, IBM sale

Well, I had pretty much made up my mind to buy a Macbook Pro, though my notbook needs are pretty mundane (no games, mostly Word and internet stuff). People seemed to like the Mac OS a lot. I like the fact that if I have problems, I can walk the Mac to a local store and don't have to ship it. Consumer satisfaction is high. Customer service is great.

Then IBM put on its Memorial Day sale. The Thinkpad would end up being cheaper, and people also seem to be pretty happy with Thinkpads. Seems to be very well made. I can get accident insurance (unavailable from MAC, though could get rider on my home policy) and a better port replicator than the after-market thing I can get for the Mac. Also, I likely will be using at least one program that will only come in Windows, so I would have to load parallels. So I am vacillating.

The consensus seems to be (correct me if I am wrong) that Vista has too many bugs at this point, and it would be better to go with Windows XP and then load Vista, if ever, after the SP1 comes out.

Any general words of advice? Could I use Windows XP for the life of the Thinkpad or would I be forced into Vista downstream? Mac worth the extra few hundred dollars? Thanks.

 

Well, the MBP and ThinkPads are both excellent machines, so you're going to get a good laptop either way.

Honestly, if all you are using is Word and Internet stuff anyway, the ThinkPad is going to be just fine. I think at that point the difference would come down to how much you liked Mac OS X (which would of course depend on you being able to at least spend some time with a Mac.... this is easier if you have an Apple Store near you, where you can play around with them and they will be more than happy to show you how things work, etc.).

Frankly I would think Vista would probably work fine for you anyway; I think the problems some people are encountering are for more complex uses, etc.

Personally I love Mac OS X, and I think you will find a number of people who have switched who do seem to appreciate the differences.

However, unless you are currently very frustrated with Windows, I think you'd be fine sticking with Windows.

Between the memorial day ThinkPad sales going on, and the cost of an MBP + the cost of a Windows license you'd need to buy, you're talking about a pretty big difference.

Personally, based on what you've said, I think you should just go with a ThinkPad. Next time you get a chance, maybe try and spend some time wirh OS X, and you can see whether you like it or not. But I don't see a particularly compelling reason for you to get a MBP right now.

-Zadillo

 

you should always pick a laptop based on the OS you like
if you like OS X. then get the mac/
if you like windows. then get the Lenovo

 

I noticed that the cost savings are not that great, partly because I can get Windows licenses for free through my university.

 

Well, that is something to think about.

Do you have any place where you can visit an Apple Store or some other place with Macs to sit down and spend some time with OS X? I think that would be important in making this decision.

Honestly though, I think for your uses, the ThinkPad is going to be just fine, and should be a great machine.