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Re:Realistic alternatives to Apple computers by h4nkoslo on Tuesday November 01, 2016 @11:50AM (#12846850)
Thinkpad T450s.

Lightweight, matte non-glare screen, and double battery. The latter means I can swap batteries if I'm out and about without shutting down. 100% Linux compatibility.

Also under $1K even considering an aftermarket SSD & RAM.

Re:Realistic alternatives to Apple computers by jhugg on Tuesday November 01, 2016 @12:02PM (#12847025)
Our office is split mac/pc. We bought about 12 of the T440s/T450s for the pc folks. There is a lot to like. One surprise perk: they use the same mini-displayport dongles to connect to projectors, so we can just leave the dongles on.

Downsides: The screens are pretty washed out and blah compared to the mac screens, but ok for coding. The trackpads also holdup very poorly against the macs.

The key problem for us though is they fail way more than the macs. Probably about half of them have had some issue or another after 2yrs. For the macs it's been closer to 1 in 10 or 1 in 15.

We decided to spend more and push people toward more expensive macs. It saves us so much IT time.

Re:Realistic alternatives to Apple computers by sf_rob on Tuesday November 01, 2016 @12:10PM (#12847135)
+1 Lenovo. I have a slight preference for the sleek form factor of the X1. I imagine Mac fans might take issues with the textured trackpad, the all plastic surfaces (though high-density plastic at least), and the aforementioned matte screen. Ran Ubuntu on one for years before switching to OSX for a few years (switching back if Apple doesn't give the Pro a spec bump soon (unlikely) ).