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I have had installation CD discs fail at around 10 installs. I suspect that is by design. The software suppliers are putting out junk so that it cannot be passed around. That's a pain in the butt for multi-user licensed folks in the computer maintenance industry. My theory is that little repeated exposure to the laser, is enough to cripple some of these CD's, even though the plastic surfaces and other appearances are flawless.

Getting "sour" CD's from Apple, is especially time-consuming. At the current rate, 5% of their installer CD's are junk, right out of the box.

Upon the very first occasion of a CD read failure, I "survey" the CD set and get another.

I have had installation CD discs fail at around 10 installs. I suspect that is by design.

Huh? Mass-produced CDs rely on a very different technology from CD-Rs or CD-RWs -- they're the same mechanical imprinting as is used on mass-produced music CDs, and little affected by the low-energy laser read mechanisms they encounter.

That said, I've encountered problems with installation CDs -- in particular Red Hat Linux 9.0, which consistently fails on installation as a "Personal Desktop" to a VMWare virtual machine, on the 2nd CD. Seems files "x-pdf*" and after are hosed, inaccessible, or worse.