I only run Apple laptops due to the aluminium unibody chassis. All of my current machines have SSD except for my old iMac with an HDD (new iMac is SSD). Oldest unibody MacBook and BlackBook are HDD.

Since 2008, I've done about 2500 commutes and haven't had any problems with a backpack and/or laptop combo. I did just get a few dents in my rMBP 2012 due to being hit by a van, but it's otherwise OK.