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    For consumer devices, it's actually the other way around: with MS-DOS you could just pull the plug; when Windows took over you had to learn to shut down properly.
    – Pete Becker
    Commented Jan 19, 2015 at 15:27
  • SSDs might be an issue similar to HDDs. They write by erasing data in large blocks and re-writing the new data, so if that operation is not completed for the block there would be data corruption. The O/S may be smart enough to recover from that, but it's not 'nice', and eventually you might have an unrecoverable error.
    – Spehro Pefhany
    Commented Jan 19, 2015 at 15:35
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    Let me point out that the potential side effects of "pulling the plug", while technically correct, are typically greatly overblown. I've "brutally" shut down my computer countless times. I've never ever had corrupted files, or hardware problems. Not even once. In over 15 years.
    – Andreas Bonini
    Commented Jan 19, 2015 at 20:24
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    @AndreasBonini "I've never ever had corrupted files, or hardware problems." Just to be a pedant, you've never had corrupted files that you've noticed or that had a big impact (e.g., are you sure that no continually written log files or temporary files were corrupted?), or that couldn't be repaired when the system booted against (those "system wasn't properly shut down, checking for errors..." messages) or hardware that completely stopped functioning (e.g., lots of hardware, and especially storage, has built in mechanisms for detecting and working around damaged parts).
    – Joshua Taylor
    Commented Jan 19, 2015 at 22:23
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    Actually, for a modern computer, I'd sum it up like this: assuming you've saved all your files, a power failure is most likely acceptable in most cases, although it may shorten your power supply's life a bit. It's still never a good idea to unplug your computer when it tells you not to. Windows updates, for example, or flashing the BIOS. Interrupting those processes could leave your OS or even your hardware inoperable. That's probably the biggest risk you can take, purposefully interrupting core updates.
    – phyrfox
    Commented Jan 20, 2015 at 0:21