I have a Lenovo ThinkPad and I use it for coding, and I love it. The keyboard is great, much better than the MacBook's for coding IMO. It also has a TrackPoint right on the keyboard which you can use without having to move your hands away from it, if you're into that:
(I'm not a huge fan but I know a lot of people who are.)
MacBooks have really nice touchpads. They are also multi-touch and thus allow you to use multi-touch gestures, which I find really useful. Their battery life also tends to be longer than Lenovo laptops', although I wouldn't say the latter have a short battery life, either.
Really though, we can't tell you which keyboard/touchpad combination will feel better to you, so I recommend briefly trying both at a store and seeing which one you like more.
That said, I'd say the biggest difference between the two laptops is price. Is it worth paying for a MacBook if you are only going to be using it as a thin SSH client? Half of what you'd be paying for is looks, which you said don't matter to you, so I'd personally pick the Lenovo unless you think the multi-touch gestures are worth it.