does anyone have comments about these to programs? I know nothing about either. Which is best and why? I'd like to make image file backups of cd & dvds. Thanks for any advice.

overall program... easily ImgBurn in my opinion. (ImgBurn does just about everything (data wise) besides copy protected stuff) ... as ImgBurn is my primary (and pretty much only) application i use for burning DATA and i use Burrrn for AUDIO.

but if your trying to backup copy protected stuff your probably going to have to look elsewhere.... so in other words if your trying to backup PC games and DVD movies etc, neither program will work.

you might try something like Alcohol 120 (or CloneCD?) for games and ANYDVD + CloneDVD (clonedvd, the SLYSOFT one. not that other crap) for DVD movies.... also another program for decrypting dvd's is DVDFab that people tend to recommend on here.

just some suggestions ... see what everyone else recommends first.

As far as I would put it.

Imgburn is a burning application. Use this to burn movie images.

UltraIso is a Image editor. Use this to edit Iso images.

Example:

Made a image of a game - Image 1

Image 1 has copy protections and lacks a game manual.

Edit Image 1 and add copy protection workarounds and game manual.

Save Image 1.

Which program is better: Word or Excel?

It's an impossible question to answer as Word and Excel are intended for different uses although there is a little bit of overlap in functionality. The same is true for ImgBurn and UltraISO.

ImgBurn is a burning program than can also create an image by reading a disc or building a filesystem.

UltraISO is a disc image editing program that can also create an image by reading a disc and also burn an image to disc.

I use both - each one for the tasks it does best.

Yes it is: your analogy is wrong, they are both pretty much do the same thing where as excel and word are 2 different softwares.
Imgburn is free, but only burning image and making image files only
UltraISO does just that and more. You can edit image files with it
But if you dont use the image edit option, then why waste money, imgburn is free and it is awesome. And if you are a good sport, drop a few dollars to donate the programmer of imgburn.

Sometimes I get lazy, I use UltraISO for everything, burning images and making image files. Or making 1:1 copy

I'd like to thank everyone for their opinions. They were easy for me to understand. Both sound like very useful programs.