Yes, for many things, Python is better than MATLAB. But the choice of language is no longer dichotomous, and Julia manages to be better for command line automation than Python. A pipe operator combined with custom interpolation for command literals gives you really beautiful syntax:

  fname = "/tmp/myfile with spaces"
  f = open(fname, "w")
  run(`echo hi` |> f)
  close(f)
  pipe, process = readsfrom(`cat $fname`)
  cmdoutput = readall(pipe)
  println(cmdoutput)

I'd write all of my command line scripts in Julia, except the interpreter currently takes far too long to start. But people are working on that.