Feature-By-Feature: Ubuntu 9.10 Vs. Windows 7

Karmic Koala's desktop should be familiar to Windows users. Right-click menu shortcuts and personalizing the desktop features are similar to Windows 7. The desktop still isn't as "glitzy" as Windows 7, but users can get the eye candy of Windows 7 with a fast graphics card and can choose the "Extra" settings in Ubuntu 9.10's "Appearance Preferences."

Experienced Linux users are familiar with the command line. One can argue that it's Windows that is the one getting up to speed with the power of the command line, especially with Server 2008's Power Shell. Here is the Terminal screen in Ubuntu 9.10, which provides a robust environment for executing scripts and commands.

Ubuntu 9.10 comes with an e-mail and calendaring client with features that are available only in Outlook and not in Outlook Express. Evolution mail client and calendar can be used to sync up IMAP and SMTP e-mail accounts. Users can import vCards, .csv, vCalendar and other messaging file formats into Evolution.

No surprise here. Ubuntu's answer to Windows 7's Internet Explorer is Firefox version 3.5.3.

A user would have to have a locally installed full version of Microsoft Office to get the same feature set provided by Openoffice.org's Impress, Writer and Spreadsheet, all of which are installed by default with Ubuntu 9.10.

Perhaps more of a feature associated with Apple than Windows, Ubuntu 9.10 replaces the Add/Remove feature in the Applications menu with the more contemporary Ubuntu Software Center, with the big exception being that the software is free.

Microsoft beefed up system problem detection and remediation in Windows 7 with the Troubleshooting feature in the Control Panel. Ubuntu has its own troubleshooter in the form of "System Testing." This utility tests a variety of components such as audio and video for problems and suggests configuration changes to optimize performance.

System Monitor is Ubuntu's counterpart to Windows' Performance Monitor. As in Performance Monitor, System Monitor allows users to track processes and system resources such as CPU usage and network traffic.

Ubuntu 9.10 comes with a native Network Tools client that gives users a bit more information about network status than is available within the Windows 7 GUI alone, such as Port Scans.

Ubuntu 9.10 has both a Terminal Services client and Remote Desktop. Here, we are using Terminal Services to remotely and effortlessly connect to a Windows Server 2008 machine.