Slim Slag,
Good point and that's probably a plus of sorts for Ubuntu again - the live CD that boots & runs off the CD. Can't recall the exact wording, but if you try the live CD and get two or more errors then they say don't install it as it'll take too much hacking to get it to work.
The reason Windows tends to work so well is dur to the money invested by the PC manufacturers to set up facilities to work closely with Microsoft.