Because the companies making the laptop recommend you to shutdown the laptop before puttint it into your backpack.

[1] - https://www.dell.com/community/en/conversations/xps/faq-mode...

EDIT: Added source cited in the article

That's CYA nonsense, up there with "Q-tips aren't for cleaning ears". (Yes, they are.) Nobody actually shuts down his laptop before chucking it in his bag.

> Nobody actually shuts down his laptop before chucking it in his bag.

I do. I had a few poor experiences with laptops accidentally turning on while in the bag between 1995 and 2010.

After the last time, in 2010, when the thing started beeping due to overheating, I started the habit of shutting down/hibernating completely instead of just closing the lid and popping it into the bag.

Laptops still occasionally do that. I'm kind of impressed that they manage to keep chugging even when the lack of airflow keeps them at >90°C for the entire time it takes for either me to notice that they turned back on, or drain their battery.

They don't, but the problem is the laptop manufacturers and/or Microsoft have fucked up the implementation sufficiently that it's no longer a safe operation.

I learned to turn my XPS 17 off after it almost cooked itself in my backpack a few times.

What an awful laptop.

I have opened my backpack to find it very hot because my laptop accumulated a bunch of heat in its cushioned pouch and subsequently drained all it's battery

It is not nonsense. I had my laptop turning on from sleep mode inside my bag and getting really hot, because of idiotic Windows 7 settings back then, which turned the device on, when networks changed. It is just ridiculous. Probably still in there that default. Since that day, I always shutdown my device completely.

Don't conclude from your own carelessness to others. Even just one person shutting down their laptop will instantly disprove your claim, that "nobody does XYZ". So you will basically almost always be wrong with such a statement/claim.

I know more than one person who ended in the ER with a perforated eardrum because of qtips. I honestly don't understand why we haven't outlawed them yet (in countries with universal healthcare, in the US you could just have a more expensive health insurance if you choose to use them).

Good for you. But I don't want that.

At the moment, the user cannot choose, but is forced to be always "on".

The user can choose to use operating systems and applications that let him configure which apps get to run in the background and at which times. You don't want email updates while asleep? Configure your OS to implement this policy. There's no reason that hardware makers should continue to support multiple and legacy sleep modes like S3 just because OS vendors don't give users appropriate policy knobs in software.

Why is S3 "legacy"? Just because Microsoft says so?

When it is working, S3 sleep covers my needs perfectly. And it is not about email updates. I don't want my laptop to do anything while in sleep. It's that simple.

You're right. Why should hardware vendors target operating systems that exist?

Sure, S0 on Windows makes your laptop turn on in your bag for impossible-to-disable updates, causing it to overheat or the battery to run down. And no laptops on the market will S0 on Linux without running down the battery in less than 24 hours.

Why should hardware vendors mollycoddle users who make the foolish decision to use either Windows or Linux?

So much better to have the battery drain in sleep mode, than clicking "get messages" button a single time once you use your laptop again.