Microsoft's PowerShell Now Available On Ubuntu In Snap Form

[chithanh]

Yikes. 60 MB download size for a shell.
For comparison, python in snap form has around 22 MB.

Why would anybody use PowerShell over bash for simple tasks, and over python for tasks that require OOP? I think there is simply no use case left.

First the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), them bying Github,

WSL was initially a quick&dirty job built on the ruins of Project Astoria (Android app compatibility for Windows). It has since matured somewhat, but I think Microsoft can never allow it to grow beyond a makeshift solution lest they endanger the other app ecosystems which they are currently invested in (Win32, UWP, PWA).

About Github, I have been scratching my head a while what could have been worth the price. I now think that the ability to recognize and react to trends in Open Source early, especially those which potentially impact Microsoft's business model, was the key for the decision.

[anarki2]

I have done a lot of development on Windows. I only ever needed Powershell when i was forced to use it, because some function wasnt available in cmd or vbscript. And i NEVER thought it was smart nor handy to have objects in the CLI. OOP makes sence for scripting in python, vbscript etc. Not in the command line in my opinion.
Also Python can be used as a CLI..

You never thought, a lot of others, including me, do. It's incomparably handier compared to "oh I need some info let's cat and grep and awk and tail and cut" bash or "why doesn't my code work, oh it's a missing space" python.

The only advantage of these two is being ubiquitous. Most scripts are written in bash because it can be taken for granted, not because it's "good". It sucks ass when it's anything longer than 5 lines, especially when it comes to things like error handling. Just look at this piece of crap:

wget -nv --content-on-error "${IMAGE_BASE}/${UNAME}.jpg" -O ${AVATAR_FILE} || true
# continue if grep doesn't match, but preserve the match state anyway
RET=1
file ${AVATAR_FILE} | grep -i jpeg && RET=$? || true

That's error "handling" in bash for ya. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

[chithanh]

Heh, now that you mention wget: PowerShell has its own wget replacement built-in. Just that PowerShell's "wget" has a totally different (IMO braindead) syntax and functionality from GNU wget.

More discussion: https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/pull/1901

[bregma]

I'm not a devop (nor do I play one on television or in MMORPGs) but is it possible this could be useful for a sysadmin who needs to manage all those PCs in marketing and accounting all the while being safe and comfortable with a more secure, capable operating system on their own laptop?

[pracedru]

You never thought, a lot of others, including me, do.

Yes sure. I've just never seen an example where objects are usefull in the CLI. On windows i alsways use vbscript or python for scripting. Can you show me an example where objects are usefull in the CLI (not scripting)?

[fuzz]

Powershell on Linux is useful for working with Azure -- I'm thinking about powershell DSC, specifically. Doesn't have to have anything to do with Windows.

[Kano]

I currently don't know what to do with PowerShell in Linux. Certainly it has nice features like simple CSV data export or import but normally I Just use it to get informations from the active directory. It is really required to use it If you want to know when a password is outdated. There is no GUI on a Windows Server to see this. For Windows clients you need to install RSAT but for Linux I have got no idea. It would certainly not hurt to get RSAT for Linux and maybe the SqlServer module.

[edwaleni]

With SQL Server for Linux & IIS for Linux in container forms available, and PowerShell capable, I can easily see a use case in cloud compute. As more MSFT products jump to Linux based containers containing PS support, I definitely see a path of growth. A Cloud SA won't give a flying rip what the host OS is.

[brrrrttttt]

As good as bash is, you have to resort to scarping text with bash. It’s a decefit with ALL text based shells, not just bash.
This issue has been known for a long time. It’s mentioned in the Unix Hater’s Handbook, MS didn’t just reinvent the wheel.

Bash is good because I don't need to spend time scouring MSDN docs (which are mostly just function names expanded to more legible English, adding no additional information! garbage) to figure out which objects/members to use. Text is very easy to eyeball and then string the appropriate commands to get out the bits you want, and man pages are brilliant.

[jacob]

Who would possibly want the M$ PowerShell on Ubuntu (and derivatives) if we have our own, seasoned and established shell?
I don't like Microsoft getting closer incrementally towards the open source world. First the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL), them bying Github, they also are a Platinum Member of the Linux Foundation and now they start to make their apps etc. "available" for Ubuntu.
I mean – they are the competitors/opposition of the FOSS world and they certainly are following their embrace, extend, extinguish strategy here as well as they did so many times before. What an ugly company.

I'm not a powershell expert at all, but my understanding is that they are not the same thing at all. Powershell is actually primarily a programming language, more akin to say Python or Ruby, which just happens to also have built-in shell features.

Now as for our own shell, I definitely wouldn't mind throwing it out and replacing it with something very radically different that would be well designed, for a change. Powershell for Linux is probably not that, although it may be useful for some.