For a desktop it's not as important, but for a portable device I think they have to have something.
I kinda have to disagree on the desktop bit, NCguy, although I absolutely agree with portables having to sleep reliably for obvious reasons.
Back to the desktop . . . the main reason I want my desktop to sleep is for energy savings. When I think about the number of desktops just within my subdivision, and if even half of them don't sleep reliably, that's a pretty big energy energy hit. I generally turn my PC on in the morning when I get up and turn it off at night when I go to bed. That means that, for the most part, my PC is on for approximately 15 hours per day and I may actively use it for approximately 6 hours (if I stretch it). If it doesn't sleep, well . . . 9 hours of a fully active PC . . . you do the math. Then we can multiply me by how many?
So, even though it may not be important for desktops to sleep in some ways; in other ways it's most important that they sleep.
While typing this, I had another thought . . . what if the
default is for maintenance and other jobs to be done while the PC is idl; I recall that my computer has asked if I want that particular default on some things.
I think that if Microsoft were to stop
trying to control our every move by doing things for us and making us think instead, a lot of these problems would be resolved. Instead of doing it for us, we could be
gently reminded that a particular job hasn't been done in a while.
I recall that in the not so distant past every OS came with a manual that required me to
read and think. Now, Microsoft just does it for us and the OS has gotten more and more cumbersome without any real way to figure out what comes next because we just don't have the written word.
Sure, there are books out there about Windows, but . . . more and more I'm also seeing equipment I purchase requiring me to go online to get the manual. But how am I going to get the manual to my OS if there's nothing telling me where to go and what to do?
I have one word for that . . .
BASICS!