From: john coz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Uh, pardon my lack of subtlety here, but is sleep something that must be initiated each time, or is sleep what happens when I just let the machine alone for a few hours and it gets all quiet and the screen goes dark and the power button just pulses yellow ever so slowly? Or are they the same thing?
They are the same thing. Sleep can be initiated manually by invoking the "Sleep" command from the Apple Menu or using opt-cmd-power, or the machine will naturally go to sleep after X amount of time unused (you set the amount of time in you Energy Saver settings).
There is some confusion as to what is meant by "sleep." In OS X, there are three components of what users think of as "sleep":
1. The monitor goes dim or dark 2. The hard drive spins down. 3. The CPU sleeps (light pulses).
Only the last item is actually "system sleep." The other two are energy-saving measures only and don't affect the performance of the CPU.
Most people have their monitors set to either dim or run a screensaver after, say, 10-15 minutes of inactivity, and their hard drives to spin down after, say, 30 minutes of inactivity. Many people let the CPU sleep after 30-60 minutes of inactivity, but of course this is entirely up to you and people's tastes vary. There's also a way to schedule (at least there is in OS 9 and Panther, don't know if there was in 10.1.x and 10.2.x) automatic shutdown and startup if you prefer.
Bottom line: there's no "wrong" way to do this. If you feel most comfortable shutting down the computer when not in use, do so. If you prefer the quick-start of "wake from sleep," do that. Laptop owners have different priorities than desktop owners, and some of us need to keep the CPU awake all the time (for web serving, for example) but don't mind resting the screen and/or hard drive if possible. Apple is all about flexibility. :)
_Chas_
FL-MUG: central Florida's Macintosh User Group. Meetings: second Thursday of the month, 6-9pm, at the Orlando Science Center. http://www.flmug.org
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