Yeah so basically

I decided to give ubuntu another try, on a completely different computer so hopefully I wouldn't have many of the problems I had the first time I tried it over a year ago.

It took six tries before I finally gave up. I got a range of very queer errors, my favorite being this one, which is clearly (or not-so-clearly) a list of files and their respective md5 hashes along with a pretty purple banner and a windows 9x type dialog:



I'm guessing it was just a shitty disc, in which case I'll probably just burn a new one or order a free disc in the mail. Sometimes I think I have too much patience with computers.

EDIT: Delivery apparently takes 6-10 weeks, fuck that!