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Comment by keyle | Hacker News Reader

I'm old school. I like to shutdown devices. Apparently that's going away on desktop computers too now.

It boggles my mind, really. Anyway, I also love the value for money of the mini. I have had quite a few mac mini and this won't stop me from buying the M4 pro...

I'll just stick some tiny rubber feet to the side of the mac mini and rest it 90 degrees on its side. Done. Thanks Apple.

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I mean, you still can shut it off, but it’s really pretty unnecessary nowadays. Sleep mode has gotten very reliable and efficient. In deeper power states devices don’t draw much current at all, and still wake up transparently instantly.

People don’t shut their phone down very much, it’s similar with laptops and desktops nowadays.

Idle state is probably what, a few watts? Maybe leaving it on 24/7/365 costs you like a few dollars at worst annually or something in even most overpriced energy markets.

I remember doing the math on leaving every single LED light bulb on all day in the house until bedtime, and the costs were so low I had to convince family that it's just poverty mentality and that we don't live in the incandescent age anymore.

I don't like devices that sip on power when I'm not home, or asleep. It makes no sense at all. It's not like fetching emails involves connecting to a landline, ring up a dialing device, get... The mac boots faster than my ass gets in the chair. Stuff loads instantly. I turn off the whole desk at the wall at bed time, so all the "mood lights" go off as well. Simple, safe.

I get the convenience of always on, it's just not my jam.

Shutting down and starting up again can draw more power than sleeping/other low power mode. e.g. airplane mode on a phone is probably better than turning the device off for the night. Old dumb phones used to sip power when switched off so the alarm would work.

No idea with desktops, but I wouldn't be surprised if suspend used less power than stop/start for overnight in some cases.

Microsoft appears to be deprecating sleep in favor of Modern Standby, in which the machine draws enough juice to download and install updates. You know, because Windows is a service, and your contract with the network when you get the show is you're going to install the updates. Modern Standby is a low-power variant of S0, the normal "awake", "computer is on" state.

Because what a PC is is defined largely by the needs of Windows, many systems shipping today do not support the deeper power states (S1-S3) at all, just Modern Standby.

Modern Standby is an abomination. Battery almost completely depleted in a couple of days doing "nothing" useful for me happens too often.

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