I am going to try again tonight to download the alternate desktop CD for Ubuntu. The responses I had received in the Ubuntu Forums all seemed to agree that my download was bad. Further it seems that many folks had better luck downloading and installing from the alternate instead of the LiveCD. One really good tip I did get from the CyberNet Forums was to burn the ISO no faster than 4X. Also need to say thanks to PDecker for recommending the FREE CDBurnerXP Pro for burning the ISO to CD-R. If all goes well, I hope to have Ubuntu installed this weekend.
