For the ride to work, do you carry anything? do you need a rack, do you ride at night, so are lights needed?

Trying to get a bike to commute on, and then be able to go off road on, is a difficult thing to find, you have eliminated possibly the best suggestion that you will get, the CX bike from LTT777, which means whatever you are going to get will be a compromise.

The suspension on entry level MTB's, especially 29er's is often poor, and on 29er's unnecessary, your budget in total isn't really enough for a good 29er suspension fork.

For the 2 you have linked to, the Specialized Hardrock has better brakes, but worse just about everything else, the Bolinas Ridge, is the opposite with better components, worse brakes, would factor in what the dealer support is when buying.