[lug] CD R/RW advice

[D. Stimits]

A non-linux friend is interested in setting up a linux box with a CD 
R/RW (and I am kind of curious about a similar thing with DVD R/RW), but 
I couldn't offer much advice since I've never had a CD burner (the only 
one I have experience with setting up is an HP on Win 2K that constantly 
dies from driver problems). Is there any general rule of thumb or 
specific advice I can pass along to him? For example, "IDE usually 
works", or a given brand is often good or bad? I think a big point on 
any advice would be something that doesn't take a lot of painful install 
steps for (relatively speaking). The friend is rather computer-savvy, 
but not a programmer and very little knowledge of linux...he understands 
hardware fairly well.

D. Stimits, stimits AT attbi DOT com