If you lived closer, I'd lend you my CD drive
If those are too much work, a netboot might work. I'm sure Ubuntu has the option. My first GNU/Linux install was from
http://goodbye-microsoft.com/, as long as you have Windows on the thinkpad and a network connection it will work fine. It is Debian, but Debian is nicer than Ubuntu anyway really.
was put impeccably into words at DebianDay for me last Saturday, by Knut Yrvin of Trolltech - adults try something once, fail, and then are like "ffs this doesn't work". Children try, fail, and then try again, and succeed - maybe on the second, or even fifth retry. But the thing is that they keep at it and overcome the problems in the end.
-andrewdodd13
