Powershell provider for Sharepoint 2007
Would a Powershell Provider for SharePoint 2007 be worthwhile or is stsadm.exe sufficient?
There is a PowerShell provider that I've heard some good things about. It's available on CodePlex; however, it doesn't yet support MOSS 2007. That said, I've found using the SharePoint object model sufficient. If you don't want to dig into the object model, though, I recommend both Gary LaPointe's stsadm extensions, and his newer PowerShell cmdlets for SharePoint. Both are available via his blog.
Given how pervasive PowerShell has been for the Exchange servers, it's probably a good assumption that the other Office servers won't be too far behind. So, while you're probably better off just calling stsadm from PowerShell for now, knowing how it's used and taking advantage of Gary LaPointe's extensions during your learning will probably be a worthwhile use of your time.
I am the ashamed author of the aforementioned SharePoint Provider - the current source will build a 2007 compatible provider that can even be used from a non-sharepoint box but it is a bit primitive still. I hope to get back onto this soon.
I already am a bit overstretched over several powershell projects, so apologies again.
Here are three posts from Karine Bosch, an employee of U2U which cover some operations with PowerShell and SharePoint.
Depending on the level of coding skills known you can do anything with PowerShell and SharePoint since PowerShell can use and .NET assembly so the object model is completely usable.
I would recommend sticking with stsadm.exe unless you have a strong business need for using PowerShell.