<p>Is the thinkpad T60 or Macbook better? I'm thinking about thinkpad because it supposedly has a great keyboard, great build, and is a great notebook (also that fingerprint thing is neat) However, I want to get a macbook because its pretty... Which should I get and which is a better deal/value?</p>
<p>The thinkpad line will own the hell out of anything apple can produce. Even though notebooks are quite similair as they were made by similar engineers, the Thinkpad is the best notebook you can buy. Nothing else can reallyu compete. Only possibly Asus note books.</p>
<p>I hope you aren't getting the MacBook just because "it's pretty". You should be getting the MacBook because of Mac OS X and the bundled software, the build quality/construction, and then the aesthetics. </p>
<p>I recommend the MB, but nevertheless, I have to admit the Thinkpad's does have a great keyboard.</p>
<p>Thinkpad. Those things are unbreakable.</p>
<p>I love my Thinkpad T60.</p>
<p>To et you from OSX, you could just install FreeBSD and have a more secure OS and just run Barrel on it and it will be exactly what apple copied and marketed.</p>
<p>Yeah, I've got the Thinkpad T60 as well (go Wake Forest), and I adore it.</p>
<p>Im not going to attempt to convince you either way if you judge a $1000+ investment on how "pretty" it looks.</p>
<p>thinkbook, dont even think twice (get it? see what i did there?)</p>
<p>get the thinkpad. it will prevent you from doing freaky things with the macbook's built-in camera.</p>
<p>Eh, what the hell. Personally, I went with the Asus A8JS. It has the same specs as the ThinkPad T60 with a better graphics card, and can be had for $1380 on ZipZoomFly.com. Its also got excellent durability like the Thinkpad, so its seemed win-win to me.</p>
<p>well, I was looking into macs (in addition to being pretty) because I thought they were a lot more "Stable" than windows (The pc I'm typing on had to be erased because of some weird virus or registry thing)... However, I'm kind of put off by some things on the mac (such as not being able to minimize like 100 things into nice tabs and the lack of the right click button)... Also, seeing how Mac OS has stayed the same forever, I'm thinking windows vista might be better than Mac OS Leopard</p>
<p>the HP nc8430 is better then both</p>
<p>"Also, seeing how Mac OS has stayed the same forever, I'm thinking windows vista might be better than Mac OS Leopard"</p>
<p>OSX is updated every year or two. Leopard (OSX 10.5) is coming out in a few months. OSX is a much better operating system than Windows. Windows on the other hand is updated far less frequently and is less secure and less easy to use.</p>
<p>still, I like window's ability to minize like 100 windows at once... With macs you can't do that... And hasn't the mac interface looked the same since like 1995?</p>
<p>I'd go with the macbook. And yes, you technically can minimize 100 windows at once with windows, but if you have more than 10 open the computer's going to crash. Anyway you can have like 100 windows open at the same time on OS X.</p>
<p>I mean having like 20 word documents (I currently have that many now and btw, the system is not crashing) all neatly compiled into one single microsoft word task at the bottom... Macs can't do that</p>
<p>Well I can do that on my PowerBook; I just "hide" Microsoft Word when I'm not using it, or I use Expose.</p>
<p>I would definitely recommend the MacBook.</p>
<p>people, please only comment if you've used both!</p>
<p>Paul,</p>
<p>I grew up on a PC and had to change to a PowerBook my freshmen yr because of the program I am in, which at first irritated me; however, once I actually had my PowerBook in hand, I was amazed at what it could do and how well it worked.
In my experience as both a student and as a student computer tech (and supervising of a team of them), macs are far more stable and effective in the performance of various tasks.
On the other hand, PC hardware is typically cheaper. This is because there are more manufacturers competing for PC sales, whereas Apple has a monopoly on computers that run Mac software (including OS X...at least legally).
For example, my PowerBook G4 is 3 yrs old and has a 1.33 Ghz processor and 500mb ram and cost around $2k. This makes it significantly more expensive than similar PCs of the same time period.
However, it can easily handle 8 browser windows (and yes, you can tab things on macs--it just works a little differently), 3 professional apps (i.e., Logic Pro, Gimp--open source/free program similar to PhotoShop, and Final Cut Pro--a pro-level video editing program equivalent to Premier), and 8-10 additional programs along with a dashboard full of gadgets simultaneously with no (noticeable) slowdown. When I have tested PCs, it takes about a 1-2gb ram Windows XP machine with about a 3 GHz processor to match the performance.
In part, this is because Apple knows what OS X will run on, so they actually customize and optimize the kernel to fit the systems it will run on. This allows them to greatly reduce the overhead that slows Windows systems down.</p>
<p>In response to your comment about Vista being a better choice, I am wondering whether you have used Vista yet. While it had the potential to be a great system (heck, Microsoft took almost SIX years to get it out!) It's been dubbed "Windows XP Service Pack 3" for a good reason--it doesn't really add much to XP. Additionally, many of the features Microsoft had hoped to put into Vista have actually been present in OS X 10.4 for the last year and a half!</p>
<p>For example, for the new "Microsoft Windows File System" feature they failed to implement... Apple has basically developed an equivalent known as "Spotlight" in 10.4 that I use constantly to access things I need.
Another example is Barrel's Widget's, which were copied by OS X in 10.4 and Vista in its Gadgets utility.</p>
<p>Still, there are good reasons to go with a PC. For example, if you are into gaming or anything else where a lot of the applications you may need are unavailable on a mac, you should definitely go with a PC.
I think it really comes down to your needs.
Macs will likely be more expensive for your needs, but they may be more reliable. Additionally, my primary complaint about mac laptops (especially the aluminum models, such as the powerbooks and macbook pros) is that they reveal damage easily. Whereas most PCs are plastic, so damage is much less of an obvious issue, macs do not hide the damage you do (i.e., by your books in your backpack.... or dropping it!).</p>