N00b question and a comment: Now that I have the entire blockchain downloaded and verified on my Windows box, can I simply shoot it over to a Linux box (under the Linux bitcoin core software, of course) to get a jump on things, or do I have to download/verify it separately there? Are the blockchain data file formats the same? thanx.
Maybe I might start liking the UTXO and stuff and disliking Windows instead (the client is running on Windows). I now remember that Windows is doing pretty crappy job at managing the disk and the files on it. Once I find the time for this, I will try to run the thing on (modern) Linux and see what happens.
After the past few weeks running Windows 8.1 (NTFS) and Ubuntu 14.04 (ext4), both for the first time, doing some of the same disk intensive tasks, I can virtually guarantee that the Linux filesystem is enormously faster and more efficient. Good luck with your experiments!