I'd be ok with it being not part of the recording space, but just for transfers. e.g.: Plug it in, the (hypothetical TiVo port of) Linux Mass Storage Driver recognizes it, and a new menu item appears under the "Save to DVD/VCR: area, Save to Removable Drive. This would give you a .tivo file identical to one you'd transfer to your pc over the network. And once you had some files on it you wanted to transfer back, it could appear at the bottom of the Now Playing list the way other DVRs and PCs running TiVo Desktop do toady. It'd also be nice to be able to load up home movie mpegs on the drive while it is plugged into the PC and have them show up like the recently added GoBack feature of TiVo Desktop.