unix laptop question: closing the lid

[Sean Berry]

> I used to have a Vaio 14" laptop (terrible support for anything, tho
> FreeBSD was stable - tho without support for the modem, firewire, or
> sound and X ran only with a native Linux driver at the time).
>
> One week it decided that it would no longer sleep on close. I learned
> this with a very warm laptop bag and near dead batteries as I got onto a
> plane.  Rather than really chasing down the problem, I turned it into a
> Mac and my life was better.
>
> But the Vaio in this state seemed warm and I wondered if the design
> presumed some airflow from the vents and keyboard above.

Several of the machines I've owned seem to have this assumption.