That live disc again!

Last year readers will remember how I wrote about the nightmare of the live disc and Virtual Box (read it here).

Well, today the dreaded live disc struck again. I had left Virtual Box alone this time, that is gone forever from my computer, but I read that Linux could be run from the CD-ROM in a sort of demo mode, and when you had finished you just eject the disc, restart the computer and get your Windows back again. I put the disc into the disc tray and then restarted the computer. I have to say that the boot process was not particularly fast for the Ubuntu, if anything it was slower than my now-speedy XP system, but I am interested in seeing what Linux has to offer without having to commit to installing onto the hard drive so I decided to give the disc a go without the dreaded Virtual Box.

After a quick game of Mah Jongg, I looked round at some of the software - Open Office, media players, disc burning and my beloved GIMP were all there, and the GIMP on the disc was a more up to date version than the 2.4.2 than I run on XP. I tried to install the latest version but my computer doesn't like it and so I re-installed 2.4.2. I have to say I like the look of Linux.

The fun started, again, when I tried to eject the disc. I got a notice saying that there was "an error in ejecting the volume" each time I tried to eject the disc, and even poking the emergency eject hole did not work. I had to restart and then press the eject button on the drive and thankfully it opened and I could remove the disc.

If anyone has any suggestions on how I can try Linux without Virtual Box and without putting a damned live disc into my disc drive then please speak up!