Apple or Thinkpads, buying for department

Question

I'm asking this anonymously. Our department of computer science just received a donation to buy laptops for students. Major activity will be programming and languages used will be C/C++/Python/Perl/Java/R. We will be instituting a lending scheme for students who can't afford them.

As a committee, we now need to decide whether we should be buying Apple Macbook Pro(13") or Thinkpad (T420) both with more or less similar specifications and price. The Apple will run it's OS and Thinkpad will run Debian Linux.

My question is : We are training the students for research and we wish to provide them with an environment close to how it is in the real world. Should we choosing one over the other considering all students have an inclination for research/academia?

This is not meant to be a flame war but rather a question of whether Academia has hidden liking towards Apple and if yes, why?

Answer 1

I think that in most conferences/project meetings I attend, there isn't an overwhelming preference on one side or the other (I'm working in computer science, in case that matters). In other words, there are many academics happily working with linux, and many academics happily working with mac (some are even working with both), so in your case, there is no real wrong choice.

From what I've experienced, in some places, there could be a preference for apple computers because of the way some universities order their hardware: if you ask for a PC, you might not be able to choose which one exactly, and you might end up with a low quality, cheap product, whereas if you ask for a mac, the quality is better (at least, that was true a while ago). But I don't think it can explain why the proportion of apple laptops in the academic world is higher than that of the general population.

In any case, I don't think that working within on environment will prevent the students to switch to another one later one if they need to.

Answer 2

I think that neither apple nor Thinkpad T420 have a reasonable advantage for a programmer. A 13" screen is too small for an activity that it is often done with, much bigger displays (at least in my limited experience). I think that a standard programmer doesn't see any difference between these laptop and a good 750$ 15" laptop; but you can buy two of them at the same price of the T420 or the macbook pro. And you can lend them at a lower rate. If you need more computational power, then probably they are not enough. An OpenCL or OpenGL programmer, for example, cannot seriously use them for his job; expecially without a ssh connection to a high performance desktop or a connection with some cloud computing server.

So, my opinion is that you can find a cheaper laptop, with adequate performance, and increase the number of laptop that you buy. Obviously, if the number of laptops is fixed, there is no advantage in a cheaper laptop, even if I think a bigger display can be useful.

Answer 3

I do not think there's any appreciable difference. Both types of machines are able to perform the tasks you require more than adequately, and neither has a significant learning curve for students unfamiliar with the platform. I would choose the one that your IT staff has more experience supporting and the one that has the fewest associated costs.

If all costs really are equal, ask the students; they'll probably have a strong opinion one way or the other.

Answer 4

Does your donor have a preference? Neither will look like good value for money, but Macs are sexy looking. What about buying Macs and dual booting them? This way your students can get experience in both environments.

Answer 5

I don't think that there is technically a real difference between the two alternatives that you mention. Now, you have to find other ways to choose. I guess that buying macs can seduce prospective students easily (at least more than T420): "Hey Bob, do you now CS dpt XYZ? Sure Alice, this is the coolest on earth, they even give macbooks to their students...".

Answer 6

Couple of reasons I would go with thinkpads are the following. Please keep in mind I have no CS background.

• Longevity: thinkpads (particularly T series) have a good track record. They can be repaired, reused and upgraded. Apple computers are almost the opposite. A failure in a component often warants for an entire motherboard (since everything is soldered).

• Thermals: Apple has terrible termals. Thinkpads are not particularly superb but they are still significantly better than apple computers. If any of your students needs to do something computation heavy for their research it will be benefical to have some thermal performance.

• Rigidity: I don't know much about apple chasis materials but there is a cult around thinkpads' (reddit r/thinkpad) admiring their rigid, reliable construction. If you go in the afforementioned subreddit, you will see people ressurecting very old thinkpads. On the other hand a significant portion of Apple laptops are now under an extensive keyboard replacement program because their keyboards fail. They say it is a small portion of their keyboards but people around me seem to have this issue more often than they make it sound. And when their keyboards fail, it is absurdly long, expensive and hard to replace them. You do not want your students to go through keyboard issues in their busy periods (final weeks etc.).

• Upgradability: As mentioned, Apple solders every component to their motherboards. Upgrades are near impossible. T series thinkpads usually have really upgradable motherboards. It is not uncommon to see thinkpad lovers using a 10 year old IBM thinkpad with the new CPU, rams, IPS screen and SSD they installed.

• Repertuar: You have mentioned that you would like to give your students "environment close to how it is in the real world" but it is likely the case that they will need to be familiar with a good range of hardware and software. Certainly, thinkpads with linux is the less common choice between the two.