This machine runs Xubuntu like you wouldn’t believe (well, you probably would). Still, college classes and reality seem to be demanding Windows 7 or 8 so I’m back to that for now.

Ditching the MacBook 2010 machine required something to move all of my files without doing it across WiFi, so I found that it is possible to download the Apple BootCamp drivers sans BootCamp. A registry file update and copying a couple of driver files to your Windows driver folder and you have the ability to mount an HFS+ drive (partition) to a drive letter – it’s read-only so YMMV. However, this worked like a charm to get all of the crap off the MacBook drive. If you search for HFS+ Windows driver you’ll probably find the file you need…

BTW, the E6510 with the Quad Core i7 is a damn responsive system with VirtualBox installed. 12 GB currently installed, waiting on the final 4 GB to bring this beast to 16 GB. With a 1 TB drive installed, it’s hard to beat for $200 (good luck finding that deal again).

While Windows is not my favorite operating system, it does have certain advantages such as common driver support.

A couple of drivers not yet found… not really a problem at this point as it’s probably equipment that I’m not using.

Oh, if you’re looking for a way to empty out that encrypted, EXT4 (btrfs) partition that you unwittingly created on your Xubuntu installation, take heed: Install VirtualBox (or similar) and install Xubuntu with the extensions. Use “Try Xubuntu” (don’t install) and then allow the USB driver to access your externally connected drive. You’ll get a prompt for the key to the encrypted partition. Enter it and then transfer the files to either the host or another USB device. It seems to be a real pain in the ass to do this any other way.

This machine also runs Windows 8 pretty well, but who would want to? Let’s strip everything that a power user might desire and make it into a touch screen based… oh, wait, it seems that some people, numbering in the millions, don’t like that. Hmmmm, maybe Marketing should have actually checked with real users before making a bunch of assumptions. Well, Windows 9 will fix the stuff that irritated everyone about Windows 8 (sort of reminds you of Windows 7 and Vista).