I installed 9.o4 on a cd-rw, but the old computer would not read it. The vista computer doesn't like my cd-rs. I think that I'll buy some higher quality cd-rs and try again.

You can find great help in many places for Ubuntu and Linux based OS's.
I would start at https://help.ubuntu.com/9.04/index.html
Good luck

just get them to send you a cd with linux on it , thats what i did , it came to me in about 3 weeks:-)

i think you needn't optical drive to install ubuntu. you can install any kind of u-buntu via usb.system>administration>usb disk creator. but make sure that you make iso of ubuntu you want to. you can do this on live cd/usb.
to find ubuntu 8.04,try to find it in dl4all.com..

Make sure to select a slow burn speed or the install will fail. I always use imgburn with 2x or 4x burn speed and it works perfectly every time.