anyone know of a good USB DVD writer that works well with ubuntu?

[Jim March]

>>But I called Red7, and they told me "typically", you can't replace an internal
drive with anything but the same drive, so my only option is to get a USB
powered drive.<<

Then you called somebody at Red7 who has no clue.

The vast majority of lappies don't care at all what drive you stick in
there.  And most lappies take most drives.  The only possible "gotcha"
is that most lappies today have a perfectly rectangular outer face
cutout (and outer face panel for the DVD drive) while a few use one
with a "notch cutout" in the bottom-right corner.

If yours is a straight rectangle, it's easy to find another lappy-type
drive with a rectangular panel.  Once you have the original drive out,
there is usually some sort of "chassis" that adapts the drive to that
particular laptop - sometimes it's just a single screw bracket, other
times it's more elaborate.  Doesn't matter.  Just transfer the bracket
or chassis from your factory DVD drive to the new one, slide it right
in, bolt it down.  Presto-bingo, done.

Jim