Windows 7 vs. Ubuntu 9.10 - Strengths and weaknesses

Unfortunately you weren't around to try out the 7 Release Candidates which were downloaded in iso format. Besides burning the iso disk image to a blank dvd you could have also made up a usb key from a flash drive. USB Windows 7 Installation Key Drive - Create

The tool mentioed in the guide there will also take any of the smaller distros or even a GParted iso to make up a live flash drive. For those now purchasing 7 online without media or while waiting for a backup disk can now a tool for usb devices MS now provides as well. Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool

I used to dabble around with Ubuntu for the past few years. But now I am into Linux Mint. It's based on Ubuntu, but it has all the libs/codecs for video & audio playback!

jimbo45 said:

1) No decent scripting or Shell (like Bourne or C-shell in Linux)
2) No CRONTAB (for automatic launching of jobs / scripts)

I just had to comment on this. While Windows does not have CRON, it does offer something more full featured and versatile then CRON.

Task Scheduler - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In addition to running tasks on scheduled times or specified intervals, Task Scheduler 2.0 also supports calendar and event-based triggers...Tasks can also be configured to run based on system status such as being idle for a pre-configured amount of time, on startup, logoff, or only during or for a specified time.

For scripting you should be looking at PowerShell and WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) Has all the power of the Linux shell and then some. Heck you can even run WPF applications created in PowerShell's scripting language.

All the better! for 7 that is!