We here commute on high end road bikes, vintage bikes, fixies/single speeds, 20" wheel folding bikes, touring bikes, cross bikes, 29ers, recumbents and some of us have more than one bike we use for commuting: there is no typical commuting bike, just "our" bike that we use to commute with.

I have a hard-tail 29er that I used to use for commuting: it is a fairly recent one that I can lock out the front suspension and for commuting, that's what I did but I commute on asphalt (with some rough patches but asphalt nevertheless) so I benefited from locking out the front suspension. I ride on a touring bike now with smaller tires (700x32 vs 700x55) on basically the same roads and I feel I don't need the suspension on this bike either.

Whether or not you put the suspension forks on your bike is a function of your need for comfort but recognize that suspension will sap some of the energy you put into your cycling so your speed might go down a bit (I suspect that front suspension saps less than rear suspension but when you stand up, you'll probably notice the difference then).