You're absolutely right. It's certainly not a fair comparison at all, they're very different machines and I was satisfying different needs when I purchased each one.

For the sake of fairness, the rough specs are:

The ThinkPad:

* Lenovo ThinkPad x131e, 11.6", purchased late 2013 * Core i3-3277U processor * 8GB RAM (aftermarket upgrade) * 500GB spinny drive * OpenSUSE Leap 42.1 * Embedded graphics * Firefox browser

The MacBook Pro:

* Mid-2010 MacBook Pro 15" * Core i7 - dual core, not sure which model * 8GB RAM (aftermarket upgrade) * 512GB SSD (aftermarket upgrade) * MacOS 10.11.4 * Embedded and discrete graphics * Safari browser

So yeah, it's hardly an apples-to-apples comparison.