Macbook pro, or Thinkpad W550?

My Thinkpad would be i7 32Gb RAM, probably the nice high res screen, SSD and it’d also need a TB second drive. Can you get this sort of spec with Macs?

I’m also currently using Ubuntu so it’s really about the hardware.

there are only about 3 macs to choose from and they are all on one web site 😉

is the thinkpad the 15″ one? Makes my dell deal look just ordinary

Surely your job isn’t **** enough to justify a Mac? 😛

I think 16GB RAM is max on Macbook Pros, and if you need a 2nd drive installed I can’t see how you’d fit one in.

Got rocket jr a 15″ 2.5 GHz Pro with student discount it’s pretty impressive

Runs other OSs in virtual boxes effortlessly. Display is spectacular

For someone used to PCs it’s in a completely different league

no extra drive on a MBP but i use a flush fitting micro SD card adapter for iTunes/movies so i dont fill up the main drive.
when working at home i use an external thunderbolt2 SSD as a working/scratch disk which is insanely fast (would be even faster with one of the models released last week as the internal disk read/writes are even quicker.)

Thinkpad would be the desktop-replacement style W series, which is 15.6″ screen.

One of my main concerns on Ubuntu on the Thinkpad is the stupid nVidia Optimus setup. Makes external monitors/projects a right pain. I could use Windows, but then we have to use PGP encryption which is crap. I don’t think bitlocker is approved.

However 16Gb RAM on Macbooks isn’t that much. According to their website I could get 1TB storage on a single drive which would probably be enough. Or I could maybe get away with an external drive.

Failing to see any compelling reason to get a Macbook to run Linux (beyond “someone else is paying for it”, anyway). Surely the whole point of the Mac is OSX?

Would you run Ubuntu on the Mac in a VM? It’s craaaap running natively on a Mac. The tight integration of OSX & the hardware is why they’re worth the cash.

OSX can install most unixy stuff anyway using fink, brew or macports.

rocketman – Member
Got rocket jr a 15″ 2.5 GHz Pro with student discount it’s pretty impressive

Runs other OSs in virtual boxes effortlessly. Display is spectacular
got to love quantitative comparisons 😉

Spec really depends on what you want. I dropped from I7 to I5 to get a 17″ screen in budget over the 15″ which to me is more important useful than the raw processing. Sounds like Ram is key to you how much do you use the processing? Dropping from OSx will just end up with you running a HW spec in one box vs the other.

Yeah I feel as if MacOS would just annoy me. But if it solves the problems of our corporate Windows build (PGP) and corporate Ubuntu (external monitors) then it might be worth it.

Looks like the W550 only supports 16Gb ram too – the W541 I’d need to get 32Gb. I could probably manage with 16Gb if it were worth it.

Weights seem roughly similar although W541 is a bit heavier, and it has a larger PSU too which is the biggest issue with this one.

As for processing power – I don’t need a huge amount.

What’s VMWare workstation like on a Mac? Does it support Linux guests as well as the Win/Lin versions? Their site pitches it strongly at Windows guests.

What’s VMWare workstation like on a Mac? Does it support Linux guests as well as the Win/Lin versions? Their site pitches it strongly at Windows guests.

I use Fusion, not sure if WS still exists on OSX. Anyway with Ubuntu it works perfectly.

then we have to use PGP encryption which is crap. I don’t think bitlocker is approved.

What’s wrong with Bitlocker?

If you need RAM over processing drop to an i5 an get the toys upgraded on the laptop. I did the benchmark comparions on my choices and the i5/i7 choice wasn’t that significant. Have you looked at the new Dell Inspiron 5000?
http://www.dell.com/uk/p/inspiron-15-7548-laptop/pd.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdhs1&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=mn
probably on a corp scheme but these do AMD graphics, not sure how AMD and Ubuntu play these days

Using Virtual box with centos and win 8.1 /xp /7 guests on osx.

The hardware is just nicer. build quality on my thinkpad is crap in comparison to my mrs’s MB air.

Personally I’d buy a high end MBP and install W7…

The hardware is just nicer.

It’s exactly the same hardware in a different box. Build quality may differ for me at least performance and value make the biggest difference

I use a Thinkpad X1 carbon for work.

Easily the best laptop I’ve had from a performance, and build quality standpoint, but the non-standard keyboard drives me insane! Beware

The hardware is just nicer. build quality on my thinkpad is crap in comparison to my mrs’s MB air.

+1

Nothing comes close to quality and longevity of a MacBook.

I have a have a W541 in front of me right now. It’s very very nice, extremely fast despite the best efforts of our corporate image. PSU is mahoosive by modern standards to the point it attracts comments – the 90s called they want their power block back.

Fusion = Workstation on Mac

Depends on what you’re trying to do but if you’re going to put Ubuntu on it I’d get the W541. If it was for my own titting about I’d get the Mac though 🙂

Run Ubuntu on VMWare Fusion and it works great.

I would avoid a thinkpad personally. I have a Mac and have done for years with no issues, my work machines have been thinkpads and keyboards and screens keep requiring fixing – quite frustrating, but could be a bad patch we have

It’s exactly the same hardware in a different box

does it have thunderbolt 2? is the SSD as fast as the new MBP one? does it have a haptic feedback trackpad?
a retina screen? a digital optical out?

and if I was using it mostly at home I’d go with a nice screen and a really nice keyboard and mouse. Build quality becomes a little irrelevant at that point too

Is the MAC ssd faster than a PC SSD? It’s made in the same place. Retina is a TM not a resolution, which res? can you tell the difference between 2 & 3?
What do you do with a haptic feedback touchpad? Personally I use a mouse for most things still.
Digital optical out> Sound goes out on the HDMI so the optical out was redundant about 5 years ago…

Honestly you could find a PC with all but the thunerbolt but as I can go 1ghz on network then thats fine not plugged in an internal drive in years it’s all cloud or network these days. As I said earlier consider what you want and pick accordingly, the things you list don’t make it any better for what I use my work PC for.

Digital optical out> Sound goes out on the HDMI so the optical out was redundant about 5 years ago…

Honestly you could find a PC with all but the thunerbolt but as I can go 1ghz on network then thats fine not plugged in an internal drive in years it’s all cloud or network these days. As I said earlier consider what you want and pick accordingly, the things you list don’t make it any better for what I use my work PC for.

agree with considering what you want and pick accordingly.

your choice wouldn’t work for me, as i need the dual thunderbolt ports for high bitrate/raw video and photography/photshop. USB3/network speeds are too slow as is any cloud back-up for real time working.

as for disk speed? no idea but is it as fast as this?:

We measured transfer speeds with BlackMagic Disk Speed Test coming in at 1,328MB/s read and 627MB/s write on the newest SSD. .

On storagre access USB3 vs others (from macbookworld)
http://www.sandisk.com.au/products/ssd/sata/
hitting 550 MB/s read/515 write so not that shabby and I’d love to see someone tell the difference in everyday use

Surely the whole point of the Mac is OSX?

I would say the quality of the hardware edges it. Mac keyboard/trackpads are just really really good.

I’d love to see someone tell the difference in everyday use

depends what “everyday use” is. absolutely no difference surfing the web or creating a dull spreadsheet/powerpoint.

huge difference in working on 4k/HD footage without using proxies or retouching 10gb 16bit photoshop files and saving your progress every few mins. last computer upgrade i did gained me nearly an hour a day in time saved waiting for rendering or save times.

I would avoid a thinkpad personally. I have a Mac and have done for years with no issues, my work machines have been thinkpads and keyboards and screens keep requiring fixing – quite frustrating, but could be a bad patch we have

Bad batch I reckon or heavy thumbs I reckon 🙂 – have thousands here and not seen that issue. Thinkpads have been rock solid hardware wise, Dells (global contract before) not so.

This Thinkpad has done brilliantly, despite being battered about, so I’m happy to keep using them. I broke the case a couple of times, and I could’ve replaced the broken bits for about £15 from ebay, but I ended up gluing it together. The internal metal chassis was undamaged.

I don’t care about Thunderbolt – the chances of work buying me an external thunderbolt SSD are about nil anyway.

Nothing comes close to quality and longevity of a MacBook.

Not only do I doubt that, but it’s moot because we get a new machine every 4 years anyway, and an instant replacement if it breaks in the mean time.

MrSmith, you wiuld be at the 1-2% of users there, again no benefit to most people certainly not worth paying for if it’s not useful. The MAC may fling out some big numbers but if you can’t use them what the point?

OP I would get the Mac no question, it will run the VMs and you get the upside of the time you can run it using OSX. The main reason not to buy Mac is cost and that’s not a factor for you.

Is longevity a moot point? Hopefully work will let you keep the old machine which will still be going strong in 2019 IMO and running the latest OSX upgraded annually for free.

The MAC may fling out some big numbers but if you can’t use them what the point?

good for sitting in cafe’s pretending you are creative?

you get the upside of the time you can run it using OSX

If that is an upside….. 🙂

Hopefully work will let you keep the old machine

That would be nice, but I doubt it.

If you really need 32Gb that really limits you to the portable workstations. So macs are out, as is anything thin and light. Add in good native linux support and you’re limited again.

I have these requirements (and 32Gb barely cuts it for me, so it has to be), we use Dell 4700 (old version) and 4800 Precisions (new version). There’s the bigger screen 6800 too.

Key points from a linux POV: Get the intel wifi card not the dell option, works better. Get an nvidia GPU not budget AMD one. And we disable optimus and just run on the discrete GPU. Find they manage their power well enough* that the lost runtime isn’t a huge deal. 2 external screens + 1 internal works ok, only certain configurations of 3 external screens work.

Room for 1 2.5″ drive and a mSata SSD too, so you can have a pair of 1Tb SSDs if you want. The 6800 takes 2x 2.5″ + mSata, and all can have a 2.5 bay instead of the optical drive. So you can have up to 4 SSDs in the big one 😀

Big heavy machines mind, if you can live with 16Gb you can get some nicer thin/light kit including macs.

Whoever said macs are just PCs – show me a PC laptop with NVMe/PCIe SSD in it?** And yes, you might not notice it but we’re talking high end machines in here…

*annoyingly they half the max GPU clock on battery, and there’s NOTHING you can do about it even if you want it faster and know it’ll hose the battery.

**OK ok, certain models of the latest X1 carbon, how’s that battery doing then? 😉

You at Big Blue Molgrips?

And we disable optimus and just run on the discrete GPU

On this machine, W520, that cuts my battery life from 6 hours to about 3.5…

Mac keyboard/trackpads are just really really good.

No dedicated number pad though and who uses a trackpad on a regular basis.

My work Thinkpad is over 2 years old and fine for what I want, does it’s job more reliably than my colleagues mac Book Pro. Although I will admit his has a nicer screen.

who uses a trackpad on a regular basis

everyone who uses a laptop on a regular basis, and the mac one is much nicer than the thinkpad one.