Oh my gawd! Is Google broken!? How will the internet survive without it?

Yes, but how much of this was because you were forced by Linux and how much because you wanted? I mean, there are a lot of things to do on the Windows side of things as well: do you know how to do group policy management? How to deploy them? How to configure and run an Active Directory? How to debug a kernel panic error via the dump generated?

I wanted to learn how to use Linux and in order to learn how to use Linux I had to learn how to really use a computer, which in the end made me a better user of Windows as well. Of course I know how to do all that stuff (I am/was a tech manager for a major international company), but none of that has anything to do with the computer itself, thats all just software. I'm talking about understanding the basics of how and why the hardware and OS do they things they do. Understanding that removes the mystery of things like kernel panic errors, making all of that stuff much easier to deal with.
You are asking about Windows 7 minimum requirements in a topic about people's opinions of Ubuntu 10.10. Wow, off-topic much. Get off your arse and hit Google, you'll find plenty of real world info about the system's requirements, not just Microsoft's own list.

I agree with cogadh here. Also lmgtfy.

Looking at my performance tab in the task manager right now I've around 1.4 GB RAM taken. Firefox + ATI CCP + Realtek Audio Manager + Sound App are running.
So 1GB would be the minimum, 2 GB is decent, >=4GB (using right now!) is best. You should consider the 64bit version if you have 4GB RAM.

But don't take what I'm saying as word of God and follow cogadh's advice, inform yourself ;)

Not that neither the CCCP nor Realtek Audio Manager actually need to run at startup--you can run them as needed and exit them when you're finished. In almost all situations the only thing you will need set to run at startup is your security software. Other startup programs might not take up all that much RAM once the system is up and running, but their presence has a measurable impact on startup and shut down times.

Even with only 2GB, 64-bit is strongly recommended. 64-bit versions of some applications are noticeably faster, and this is on top of inherent security advantages (most of the methods malicious programs use to hook into the OS at the deepest levels simply don't work on 64-bit due to tightened restrictions, and there are still only a handful of rootkits that can successfully infect 64-bit). Going 64-bit from the start also means you can put in some more RAM later on and take full advantage of it without reinstalling; on a 32-bit system you're wasting a lot of RAM if you have 4GB+ installed (especially if your GPU has a large amount, which further reduces how much of the system RAM 32-bit Windows can "see"). Some games have 64-bit executables available to take advantage of more RAM (very useful for the Crysis series), so it has gaming advantages as well.