Moving Windows files (user) files to Linux
 

Looks like I'm going to purchase a new laptop with Linux. What is the most efficient way moving approximately 8GB to the new machine.

8GB USB drive? Or whatever you use as a backup medium. Will take a while, but minutes rather than hours.

Some of my systems are connected by a 1GB switching hub (or whatever that device is called). It tops about 65MB/s when copying from Windows to a Samba share on my Linux-based file server. I routinely make Windows backups and copy GB-sized video files this way.

Curiously, rsync is about an order of magnitude slower.

If you don't want to set up Samba and/or have no quick network connection, use a thumb drive. Probably a bit slower, but 8GB is not really much.

I might use a usb flash drive. If it were more then I'd use a direct network connection between the two. Then either cut and paste or go wild and rsync it.