Just a brief note that I did a fresh install with Ubuntu 13.10, allowing updates as I went. The Intel video driver now seems to be active as I can install and run glxgears with a reported frame rate of 304. Previously, since the driver wasn’t fully available I wasn’t able to do any GL stuff at all.

For anyone that might be interested, this is a fantastic little notebook that has sufficient power to run a Windows 7 virtual machine in VirtualBox and still maintain decent playback quality on video or YouTube. I use it for classes on a daily basis as well as my normal daily uses and haven’t experienced any problems.

Edit: One other issue that you might find is that the volume control applet doesn’t work. If so, try installing indicator-sound-gtk2. If that works, you’ll probably have to reinstall it occasionally until Xubuntu includes it.

For those that might be taking classes that require some Use-case Models or similar diagrams, UML systems can be tough to find that don’t require a $1,000+ license. I did find a program called Visual Paradigm for UML CE (Community Edition) that doesn’t require payment for some basic functionality. While it’s got some features locked out that would have been nice to generate some files for classes, the UML portion works pretty well and (on Mac, at least) allows output to PDF. There isn’t a cost, although you do have to register to get an activation code. It’s Java-based, so should work on Windows, Mac (that’s what I’m using) and Linux.

Getting closer to graduation although I still have about 1 year left at 2 classes per sessions (8 weeks). Finally getting into some classes where I’m learning tons of good information. Wish I’d had this 6 or 7 years ago when I started as a programmer, but then again I learned a lot of good hard lessons in the process. Either way, finally getting closer to the end.