Microsoft Open-Sources PowerShell & Brings It To Linux

[ssokolow]

I wonder how long it'll be before we see Wine and ReactOS incorporating PowerShell now.

[starshipeleven]

Next step for MS: announce Canonical has always been their sockpuppet and rebrand Ubuntu Linux as Microsoft Linux.

fixed.

[starshipeleven]

What's next with this Microsoft-Linux thing? Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria!

Worse, women right activists will become moderators of the kernel mailing list.

[starshipeleven]

ghetto edit: *women's rights activists

[torsionbar28]

Yeah sure if you're 100% in linux land and only do linux, this isn't for you. However, if you're 90% in Windows land and do 10% Linux, then having the ability to use the same tools across both is compelling.

Likewise if the split is the other way around 90% Linux and 10% Windows, now you can use Bash.

Given the amount of stars on the official Linux Powerhsell github repo, I'd say some people are very interested. Just because you're not interested doesn't mean anything as your own personal desires are entirely anecdotal.

I just call 'em as I see 'em. And having been an IT consultant for more than 30 years now, I get paid for my decades of "anecdotal" experience. This Powershell on Linux thing is nothing more than a band-aid, a desperate attempt to stop the bleeding. Microsoft sees the writing on the wall. The vast majority of all new web assets are developed on Linux, because the customers are on Linux, and the innovation and tools are all on Linux. Outside of the corporate desktop peecee, Windows OS is losing its relevance, and its market share. I say good riddance to the tired old gorilla from Redmond.

[schmidtbag]

It's interesting - you could see this as Microsoft's way to help transition Linux users (particularly servers) to Windows. But, this could easily work the other way around too.

[Kushan]

I just call 'em as I see 'em. And having been an IT consultant for more than 30 years now, I get paid for my decades of "anecdotal" experience. This Powershell on Linux thing is nothing more than a band-aid, a desperate attempt to stop the bleeding. Microsoft sees the writing on the wall. The vast majority of all new web assets are developed on Linux, because the customers are on Linux, and the innovation and tools are all on Linux. Outside of the corporate desktop peecee, Windows OS is losing its relevance, and its market share. I say good riddance to the tired old gorilla from Redmond.

What has Microsoft's motivations/intentions got to do with whether or not Powershell on Linux is useful to people or not? Regardless of what Microsoft is hoping to get out of it, the point is that there's clearly interest. Besides, I'm guessing you've never actually used Powershell - bash is great, I'm not going to say that powershell is better or worse than it but it brings something different to the table that a lot of people actually do like. Part of the reason Linux as a whole is so popular is because it empowers choice - linux is just a small part of the whole OS really and you can cobble together the bits you like to form an OS that you like or is suited to your needs - so why is having a choice between Bash and Powershell a bad thing? Before the choice was "Well, are you using Linux or Windows?" but now it doesn't necessarily matter.

I disagree with your stance on why Microsoft has done this, but I don't think it's relevant, it's entirely possible for a company you hate to produce something that is genuinely compelling.

[andreano]

Is it more usable than fish? Otherwise, I won't care …

That's the real question!

I read it has datatypes, I guess more like python, as opposed to everything-is-text – probably relatively nice to script in for a shell language. Awkward commands though, so I doubt I would use it interactively.

[starshipeleven]

I disagree with your stance on why Microsoft has done this, but I don't think it's relevant, it's entirely possible for a company you hate to produce something that is genuinely compelling.

Qualities of Powershell are irrelevant, Microsoft is not a charity, their actions usually follow money (at least in the intentions).

They are doing this because they are trying to stay afloat in a world where they cannot just live off their old method of "I'm vendor-locking you HARD and now stfu" anymore.

[wizard69]

(shrug) curious... what would motivate a linux user to learn it, and what would be the possible use cases for this, which couldn't already be handled by bash, python, ruby etc?

This is what I'm wondering. Does PowerShell bring anything useful to the Linux world? I really don't know because I've never used it. With the results I get from Python it would be hard to even consider another scripting language.