[cybernautique]

Stability is an important thing. The fact that 30 year old scripts still work, and still can be run, is a testament to the staying power of the underlying technology. That staying power generally means some reduction in cognitive load: I can use the same semantics, principles, and idioms on my phone, laptop, and computer.

That's good.

That's powerful. Contrast that with the JavaScript framework du jour: React today, React with new shiny hooks tomorrow; Svelte a week ago and a week from now; while the boss just told you in an email that the meeting an hour from now regards porting everything to Vue. That's the kind of cognitive load that we're thankfully spared by long-lasting technology.

Now consider PowerShell. It is not an open standard. It is not an open technology. Its steward is Microsoft, of "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish" fame. It bucks against the long-established norm, so that all the established idioms are useless, while its semantics are just as tedious.

Why, therefore, should I bother putting pilot time into this proprietary flying rug whose engine is more-likely-than-not a cracked bottle of Microsoft semen?

As to whether PowerShell has anything to teach us about shell engineering: meh. It's not as good as Bash at doing Bash-like things and it's not as good as scripting languages at doing scripting things.

EDIT: I figured I'd look to see whether PowerShell is open. Surprisingly, it is! With an MIT license to boot. However, as expected with any Microscum code, it includes telemetry out-of-the-box.

As a matter of principle: I don't like it, I don't trust it, I don't want it. The semantics are ugly and it stinks of Microsoft.

[zerocount]

I always thought PowerShell was slow and it's got the whole .net baggage with it. Good one with the "Microsoft semen!" Had me laughing out loud.

[hutzlibu]

I think a fairer comparison would be comparing bash to vanilla js.

Old vanilla js works the same today, as it did in the beginning.

And react would be your systemD/wayland, whatever.

Environments change, thats allright. And I think it is not smart to not look out for good ideas, even if they come from microsoft.

What changed are the surroundings (and enhancements).