Power off?

[RedSingularity]

I just wanted to do a quick poll. Who shuts their computer off at night and who doesn't?

Personally i leave mine on. I find it easier to use in the morning without waiting for it to boot.

[Saint Angeles]

EDIT: oh, there it is...

i leave mine on... but now that jaunty boots up in 20 seconds, i'm seeing no point.

oh yeah, one of my sites is hosted on my computer!

[Eisenwinter]

What about a "Sometimes" option?

[SLEEPER_V]

I leave mine on, for folding @ home

[samjh]

Yes, it conserves electricity.

[mister_pink]

I can't believe people leave them on just so that they're ready in the morning. Fair enough if its actually doing something overnight, but otherwise that's just the height of impatience.

I turn mine off, mostly because I sleep in the same room as it and the whirring noises annoy me.

[FuturePilot]

Where does hibernate fit in? I usually hibernate my computer at night and suspend it when I'm not using it throughout the day. I got tired of booting my computer everyday and restarting all my applications, so I figured hibernate is a nice compromise. I'd rather not leave a laptop running 24/7, too much heat.

[kernelhaxor]

I don't have much computing work that needs to be done overnight, and I am not so impatient that I can't wait a few seconds in the morning to save energy, so yeah I do switch if off at night

[kerry_s]

i use suspend, there never off.

[steeleyuk]

I leave mine on only when theres a stack of downloads I want to get otherwise it gets turned off.

[garikaib]

I just fold my laptop. That does the trick. I am an impatient men and even 20sec is too much for me.

[Muffinabus]

I leave mine on. Started when I would often download things at night whilst sleeping. I enjoy the fan whirring noise in my room though, it's hard for me to sleep with absolute silence. Also, Windows takes foreva to boot up, if I primarily used Ubuntu I probably would consider turning it off at night, heh.

[hatten]

bad poll options, I sometimes leave it on for downloading but otherwise i suspend it.

[Linux&Gsus]

My server serves, that's what it does. 24/7.
The rest is "green computing" during night. Means, powered off. Unless I do a full backup or download something huge from a slow download source, which rarely happens. Back in the day a new Fedora DVD image usually took me a while to download. But nowadays I can't really think of anything anymore.

As others already said, can't be replicated by the poll options.

At the OP, not enough time to wait for the computer to boot with something like what you have in your sig? I guess you would through mine against the wall every 5 minutes. :D

[darthmob]

for those too impatient to shut it off at night, it can be really simple!

press power button
put on pants
log in
put on socks
start firefox / mail / whatever else is done in the morning
grab breakfast / coffee / zigarettes
ready to use the desktop. there is no real waiting time at all.

[red_Marvin]

The poll needs to be multiple choice. I have a laptop which I turn off, and a server that I don't.

[mingtien]

I power down at night, unless I'm downloading something (on my slow wireless broadband link, an ISO image takes all night). The 20 seconds or so it takes to boot is plenty of time to make a cup of tea (the pot having brewed a full 10 minutes beforehand).

Years ago I used to leave my computer on 24/7 for convenience but now that seems to me like leaving the shower running all night, or even running the water whilst cleaning one's teeth... every bit saved makes a difference :)

[khelben1979]

I leave me computers on. My stronger pc crunches data units during the night for different science projects through the Boinc client.

And my laptop is used as a reminder for everything I need to do, including going up in the morning and it has no working battery either, so I prefer having it turned on.

[3rdalbum]

I often keep my desktop on for downloading, uploading, serving media files to my netbook, or crunching numbers (video encoding). Otherwise I turn it off or suspend it.

I've got a Mini-ITX Atom-based server coming soon that I'll use for the downloading, uploading and serving media files; I'll leave that on all the time, and my desktop will get a lot more rest.

[gnomeuser]

It depends, I tend to suspend or power off the machine when it is not in use. It is often in use during the night though, for downloading large files without impacting other users on the network adversely. Also if there is CPU intensive tasks to be done like a mirage run or large compile jobs I do it at night so to not affect my regular computing.

[Dngrsone]

I leave mine on because I, too, fold (http://folding.stanford.edu/). http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee303/Dngrs_1/nod.gif

[RandomJoe]

I used to leave everything on. I occasionally thought about lowering the electric bill, but in the end it's just not that much money for the "convenience".

Then I started getting into renewable energy - solar and wind - not to go off-grid, but just to have a little something should the power go out again for a few days. Ouch - I now realize just how much for granted we take grid-supplied electricity! It is remarkably difficult (or at least very expensive) to make and store your own power in any sizable quantity. And it wouldn't take long for an always-on machine to consume what little I am making now.

So now almost everything is off when not in use. I have a single low-power (25W) Atom PC that runs straight off the battery bank for my "always-on" server needs - and I just use it for casual browsing or quick mail checks. (I still fire up the monster C2D machine with three monitors and a projector when I want to have fun.)

And the $20/month I dropped my electric bill is nice too!

[Tigershell]

Most of the time it's left on, because it's usually downloading something and if it's not I like the background noise.

[ice60]

during the winter i leave my main computer on, then during the summer i set the shutdown command to power off after 250 minutes. (i fall asleep listening to podcasts and audio books)

i'm not saying why i do it because i know it's totally ridiculous lol.

[pwnst*r]

on. i use them too much between personal/work.

[CP1256]

I turn my desktop off, since it's in the same room and the noise annoys me when I want to sleep.

My server stays on, but it's not in the same room and it's very quiet.

[Marlonsm]

I turn it off, not only to save power, but also because of the noise.

But I just turn it off at night, during the day, I leave it suspeded when I'm not using.

[myusername]

i put mine on sleep/hibernate. i only leave it on if im sleeping to music or torrent downloads. but if i am i have it to auto shutdown after a few minutes

[BrokenKingpin]

I power my desktop and laptop off at night, but I keep my server on 24/7 (aside from a monthly reboot).

[arsenic23]

My main PC is a power hog, so if it isn't doing anything I turn it off. I have an old underclocked Athlon I leave on 24/7 for various things.

[dragos240]

Ehh. My server, yes. My personal computer, no.

[PurposeOfReason]

My main PC, yes, oh god yes. If I didn't, the amount of power she consumes (core i7 @ 3800Mhz, ATI 4870x2, 3xVelociraptors in raid0) would be horrible.

My cube PC, yes, out of habit. He is getting sold soon.

Server no.

[lisati]

Most nights I switch off the computer gear, but I leave the TV gear switched "on" (standby, actually) - there are a couple of TV shows that I record overnight for late viewing.

[kk0sse54]

Yes unless I'm compiling or downloading a torrent

[mr.propre]

Yes, it's a good habit. I turn off my PC, screen and speakers.
I'm not a nature freak but I try to be green, as long as it's comfortable.
When I buy new hardware, energy is a factor that I keep in mind.

[fatality_uk]

Seeing as I don't have an unlimited supply of money to waste for no reason, like some who have posted here and also the total and utter waste of the worlds finite resource, I will always switch off appliences.

[SLEEPER_V]

Seeing as I don't have an unlimited supply of money to waste for no reason, like some who have posted here and also the total and utter waste of the worlds finite resource, I will always switch off appliences.

Thats not snarky at all.

[Dngrsone]

Thats not snarky at all.

I agree. Now, if it were grammatically correct, it might have come off snarky. But as it is, it just gives the impression of rudeness tempered with a little ignorance.

But then, who am I to say? I'm just an a$$ who covered his house in solar panels, paying about $8 a month for electricity, and that is with some eight computers running on average 20 hours a day folding when not in actual use.

[sandyd]

well, for me, half-power off if thats what you can call it :D

i just shut off the speakers, raid arrays and other scsi stuff i might have plugged in. Thats all i can shut off... and thats because of the wake-on-lan packets sent when someone accesses my site and my server/main computer is offline :(