this post was submitted on 11 Nov 2025
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Warning: This article contains swearing (Quoted, from Bill Gates).

As a UNIX-aligned engineer, I've always looked down on anything Microsoft.

But a recent cross-platform project forced me to learn PowerShell — a technology which, just like blockchain, is amusing by how its core idea almost makes sense.

I want to explore the psychological impact that a piece of documentation had on me. A political piece on par with Machiavelli, "The Monad Manifesto."

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[–] Ephera@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The thing I never understood about PowerShell is that it's partially more verbose than C#, which is one of the most verbose programming languages in existence. It just feels like you might as well go for a full-fledged programming language at that point.

The appeal of Bash et al is that the scripting is almost the same as the interactive usage, which you already know. But because PowerShell is so verbose, I'm really not sure people do use it interactively.

I guess, that code snippet in the article makes somewhat of a difference, in that PowerShell offers better features for interop between processes. But man, that still feels like it could've been a library instead...

[–] underscores@lemmy.zip 6 points 16 hours ago

PowerShell is fantastic in practice but whenever I think of writing shell scripts I think of bash first.

Bash is a lot more pleasant to work with overall, the biggest concern most people have is that it can be cryptic. IMO PowerShell scripts can be the exact same kind of voodoo.

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 41 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Bill Gates walked into the meeting “riding high” because he acquired patents for malaria treatments. Reality beats satire every time.

Bill Gates will never be a good guy.

[–] sepi@piefed.social 29 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Which Bill Gates got your attention? Epstein Island Bill or Embrace/Extend/Extinguish Bill? Either way, not a good look.

[–] Tangentism@lemmy.ml 29 points 1 day ago (1 children)

You forgot the Bill "now the largest owner of arable land in the US" Gates

[–] eldavi@lemmy.ml 14 points 1 day ago

aka hide your fortune from taxes in a charity bill

Good post. Definitely worth the read. Essentially: “how to convince execs who think they know more than they do that something is not only a good idea, but also their good idea”

that was a fun read and I appreciate the guy's sarcasm in all of it. I can only imagine what that meeting with Gates was like.

[–] calidris@hexbear.net 8 points 1 day ago (2 children)

PowerShell isn't that bad. Yeah I said it.

[–] AdamBomb@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 1 day ago

It’s downright good. Don’t even need to drop another programming language for more complex tasks.

[–] majster@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

one liners can get pretty verbose, but it scripts nicely

[–] calidris@hexbear.net 2 points 1 day ago

Agreed. I almost exclusively run scripts.

[–] culpritus@hexbear.net 5 points 1 day ago

If we can get rid of MS and keep PS as a community project, that'd be nice.

[–] thermal_shock@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Warning: This article contains swearing (Quoted, from Bill Gates).

If you're in IT and bad words offend you, fuck off. It's a requirement.

[–] Cevilia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 1 day ago

This attitude is precisely why I didn't end up in IT. :)