> What was the last time you thought about how OS X or Windows does suspend
Every. Freaking. Time. That is, since an employer equipped me with a cheap Dell. It looks like it suspends, but one time out of ten it'll come straight out of sleep and cook in my bag.
I've only used Thinkpads, with Linux, for my own work before, and they suspend multiple times a day without a problem ever. So this was a big a-ha moment for me regarding Linux usability complaints, to see what it is that people actually try to do.
Some laptops have a mechanical lid switch (instead of a magnetic one) that easily triggers when some pressure is applied to the lid. I have the same problem with... a Thinkpad. Luckily, under Linux, you can disable wakeup through the lid switch:
# cat /proc/acpi/wakeup
Device S-state Status Sysfs node
LID S4 *enabled platform:PNP0C0D:00
...
# echo "LID" > /proc/acpi/wakeup
# cat /proc/acpi/wakeup
Device S-state Status Sysfs node
LID S4 *disabled platform:PNP0C0D:00
...
It's not a one-shot setting though, as the desktop environments reset it before suspending. As far as I can remember, I put a script in /usr/lib64/pm-utils/sleep.d to make it permanent.
I don't understand the point you're trying to make: are you saying that no matter the OS, some hardware platforms will be flaky and others well supported?
You are not alone. I also have a work provided Dell that I have to shutdown unless I want to use my work bag to keep me warm on the walk home. We have another Toshiba at home running windows that will at random times of the night just spin up its hard drives and perhaps throw out the odd notification sound before spinning down again. It seems for windows suspend is not really go to sleep until you are woken up again by a human.
I have a Dell M4600 running Windows 8.1 (started off with Windows 7). Suspend and resume has always worked. I never think about suspending - I just close the lid or hit the sleep button and throw it in the bag. When I get home I press it into the home dock and press the power switch on the dock to wake up. Windows 7 also never had a problem. Yes, this is anecdotal evidence to counter anecdotal evidence.
Every. Freaking. Time. That is, since an employer equipped me with a cheap Dell. It looks like it suspends, but one time out of ten it'll come straight out of sleep and cook in my bag.
I've only used Thinkpads, with Linux, for my own work before, and they suspend multiple times a day without a problem ever. So this was a big a-ha moment for me regarding Linux usability complaints, to see what it is that people actually try to do.