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Using a UNIX shell on Windows has very few advantages, mainly just familiarity from those coming from a UNIX shell background. Although it is more verbose, Powe

Using a UNIX shell on Windows has very few advantages, mainly just familiarity from those coming from a UNIX shell background. Although it is more verbose, PowerShell is quite good. As for the terminal, the Windows default is pretty awful. It is nowhere close to iTerm in polish or functionality.

TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago
It's nowhere close to Terminal.app.
- Artemis2 11y ago
  Which is the fair comparison.
hartez 11y ago
The default terminal got a bit better in Windows 10. I've been trying to run stock for the last few weeks (rather than installing ConEmu (https://conemu.github.io/ https://conemu.github.io/), which is what I used on Windows 7) and it's been mostly okay. They've still got a long way to go, but at least Copy and Paste finally works.
- Apofis 11y ago
  The weird thing is, I came from Windows, migrated to Linux in the past 2 years or so... been using Windows since 1996 prior... and I can't get used to Powershell. I just hate it. It's so fucking cumbersome. It definitely feels like something that was tacked onto a GUI as an after-thought.
AcerbicZero 11y ago
I've been using Powershell for almost all my Windows interactions for the past 4 or 5 years, and there are definitely a few minor things I always end up missing from the UNIX shells. That said its come a long way from the v1 days, and it keeps getting better with every update.
tjohns 11y ago
I disagree that a Unix shell has few advantages. :) It's critical if you're trying to work in a cross platform environment. If a colleague gives me a .sh script, I need some way to run that. There's also a huge benefit to having access to the ecosystem of Unix command-line apps. A few of the major ones have been ported over to run natively on Windows, but there's a lot that will never be. As I mentioned in another comment: Every modern OS except Windows has a Bash-like shell and environment. I can move easily between MacOS, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, Android, and iOS, and it feels similar. But every time I use a Windows machine, nothing I've done elsewhere translates. Cygwin helps bridge that gap.
togusa 11y ago
Windows comes with powershell ISE which TBH shits on everything. No one seems to know it exists though.

TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago

It's nowhere close to Terminal.app.

Artemis2 11y ago
Which is the fair comparison.

hartez 11y ago

The default terminal got a bit better in Windows 10. I've been trying to run stock for the last few weeks (rather than installing ConEmu (https://conemu.github.io/ https://conemu.github.io/), which is what I used on Windows 7) and it's been mostly okay. They've still got a long way to go, but at least Copy and Paste finally works.

Apofis 11y ago
The weird thing is, I came from Windows, migrated to Linux in the past 2 years or so... been using Windows since 1996 prior... and I can't get used to Powershell. I just hate it. It's so fucking cumbersome. It definitely feels like something that was tacked onto a GUI as an after-thought.

AcerbicZero 11y ago

I've been using Powershell for almost all my Windows interactions for the past 4 or 5 years, and there are definitely a few minor things I always end up missing from the UNIX shells. That said its come a long way from the v1 days, and it keeps getting better with every update.

tjohns 11y ago

I disagree that a Unix shell has few advantages. :) It's critical if you're trying to work in a cross platform environment. If a colleague gives me a .sh script, I need some way to run that. There's also a huge benefit to having access to the ecosystem of Unix command-line apps. A few of the major ones have been ported over to run natively on Windows, but there's a lot that will never be. As I mentioned in another comment: Every modern OS except Windows has a Bash-like shell and environment. I can move easily between MacOS, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, Android, and iOS, and it feels similar. But every time I use a Windows machine, nothing I've done elsewhere translates. Cygwin helps bridge that gap.

togusa 11y ago

Windows comes with powershell ISE which TBH shits on everything. No one seems to know it exists though.