4 ms·

PowerShell grew up in Windows world, and largely has stayed there. If you are not Windows sysadmin, there is high likelihood you have never ended up on a server

PowerShell grew up in Windows world, and largely has stayed there. If you are not Windows sysadmin, there is high likelihood you have never ended up on a server with PowerShell installed. I have ~200 server credentials in my password manager, and I can't think any with PowerShell, but maybe over 90% has bash. All the examples for new things usually have just bash instructions. If I'd give an advice to new programmers right now, I wouldn't say learn PowerShell over Bash, because PS is just so niche.

kazen44 5y ago
but powershell is absolutely wonderful if you are running a windows environment. the fact that it is also able to use aspects of .NET is really, really useful.
- Ciantic 5y ago
  I know, I still use Windows for the time being. However there are still cases where it isn't as good as batch programs. Like Windows' task scheduler, you can't add PowerShell script to task scheduler without command prompt appearing [1] [1]: https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/issues/3028 https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/issues/3028
pie_flavor 5y ago
I gotta say, there's something funny about referring to Windows as 'niche'. Even in the server world, Windows still has the highest market share.
- smus 5y ago
  >Even in the server world, Windows still has the highest market share. Source? Seems to contradict this page. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_syste...
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - tadbit 5y ago
    The claim cannot be supported, nor can it be refuted. Based on your link for public facing servers [1] MS Windows has a Market share of ~22%, which Unix-like operating systems have ~78%. [2] However, there are a lot of operating systems that make up that 78%. Breaking that down even further Linux based operating systems account for ~49% of that ~78% [3], which means Linux based operating systems have a ~38% total market share compared to Windows market share of ~22% And again, breaking that down even further Debian has the largest market share at ~35% of all Linux based operating systems. [4] Which means Debian has a total market share of ~13%. Substantially lower than your claim. In the context of this discussion you can't make the claim that all Linux based operating systems can be lumped together as they all have varying default shells and different versions of shells, so the portability of shell scripts comes into question. However, beyond this that's only publicly facing systems. There's no way to determine how many installs of each operating system there are in private networks. Long story short, it's a silly thing to debate. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems#Public_servers_on_the_Internet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_syste... [2] https://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/operating_system https://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/operating_system [3] https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/os-unix https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/os-unix [4] https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/os-linux https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/os-linux
  - pie_flavor 5y ago
    Source is the the various articles on the front page of Google. The page you linked refers only to web facing servers, and not any other kind (e.g. databases, VCS hosts, etc.)
WorldMaker 5y ago
PowerShell Core runs everywhere and installing it even on Linux servers now is an easy install away. Sure, no Linux distribution is likely to include it in the base install, but that doesn't necessarily make it niche. "Power user" tools are rarely in the base install and sysadmins have all sorts of install scripts or preferred images beyond just base distributions and few argue many of those "must install" applications were "niche" just because they needed to be installed when setting up a new server.

kazen44 5y ago

but powershell is absolutely wonderful if you are running a windows environment. the fact that it is also able to use aspects of .NET is really, really useful.

Ciantic 5y ago
I know, I still use Windows for the time being. However there are still cases where it isn't as good as batch programs. Like Windows' task scheduler, you can't add PowerShell script to task scheduler without command prompt appearing [1] [1]: https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/issues/3028 https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell/issues/3028

pie_flavor 5y ago

I gotta say, there's something funny about referring to Windows as 'niche'. Even in the server world, Windows still has the highest market share.

smus 5y ago
>Even in the server world, Windows still has the highest market share. Source? Seems to contradict this page. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_syste...
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- tadbit 5y ago
  The claim cannot be supported, nor can it be refuted. Based on your link for public facing servers [1] MS Windows has a Market share of ~22%, which Unix-like operating systems have ~78%. [2] However, there are a lot of operating systems that make up that 78%. Breaking that down even further Linux based operating systems account for ~49% of that ~78% [3], which means Linux based operating systems have a ~38% total market share compared to Windows market share of ~22% And again, breaking that down even further Debian has the largest market share at ~35% of all Linux based operating systems. [4] Which means Debian has a total market share of ~13%. Substantially lower than your claim. In the context of this discussion you can't make the claim that all Linux based operating systems can be lumped together as they all have varying default shells and different versions of shells, so the portability of shell scripts comes into question. However, beyond this that's only publicly facing systems. There's no way to determine how many installs of each operating system there are in private networks. Long story short, it's a silly thing to debate. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_systems#Public_servers_on_the_Internet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_operating_syste... [2] https://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/operating_system https://w3techs.com/technologies/overview/operating_system [3] https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/os-unix https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/os-unix [4] https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/os-linux https://w3techs.com/technologies/details/os-linux
- pie_flavor 5y ago
  Source is the the various articles on the front page of Google. The page you linked refers only to web facing servers, and not any other kind (e.g. databases, VCS hosts, etc.)

WorldMaker 5y ago

PowerShell Core runs everywhere and installing it even on Linux servers now is an easy install away. Sure, no Linux distribution is likely to include it in the base install, but that doesn't necessarily make it niche. "Power user" tools are rarely in the base install and sysadmins have all sorts of install scripts or preferred images beyond just base distributions and few argue many of those "must install" applications were "niche" just because they needed to be installed when setting up a new server.