why log out?

[csonni]

Forgive me for my ignorance, but if I am the only user in OSX, is there any reason for me to log out?  I usually just let my Powerbook sleep in between work, or shut down and restart.  I hear there is a bug for laptops in 10.2.3 when logging out- kernal panic.  Apparently, VersionTracker has a piece of freeware to cure it.

[jcarter]

I never log out from anything(except bank + that kind of stuff), my photo album or web stuff, or anything!  I want it all to be there when I get up in the morning, and it is.   Is there a reason to log out?
Yes, I can think of one reason, to be forced to remember the passwords.

[kps]

There's no reason to log out, but if you put your machine to "sleep" the logout procedure will kill all user processes and that may be a good idea. The less processes running on "wake" the less potential of something going "whacko".  If you shutdown, that procedure will also log the user off the machine so that's not the issue.

[jcarter]

Actually I do shutdown the computer every night, but in the morning, I am still logged in to what ever site that I didn't log out of.
Have cable modem, and a G4, on OS 9.2.2.  Do I need to log out?

[giantmike]

jcarter, you are misinterpreting the log out being discussed. They aren't talking about logging out of web sites, but rather logging out of your current user in OS X.

I am the only user to my machine, but sometimes log out to log into root, for security reasons (I live on campus), and sometimes to fix things (such as earleir today when some of my icons went generic. Logging out and back in solved it).

[jcarter]

Thank you, Mike, For setting me straight. I thought that this was a bit beyond me, now I know why.
Another reason that I have avoided X.

[Thomas S. England]

GiantMike has it right. I think of Log Out as the light version of restart. It's much quicker and fixes the odd quirk now and then.