[dba-Tech] Microsoft is bringing the Bash shell to Windows 10

[Jim Lawrence]

Hi Shamil:

I have not tried to login multiple times to a Windows 10 computer but I current believe it is just not possible...if I am wrong please correct me. When I was mentioning "Multi-processing, background and parallel processing, isolation layers" I was describing this within a multi-user environment and all the different desktop sessions and extended networks that implies.

What confuses me is why Microsoft would make such an effort to install a Bash shell module within a desktop.(?) They have a very good power-user shell (but I honestly have not worked with it for last five years). Most young developers, system adms and system ops people, that I am aware of, open up their stations (funny enough mostly Apple...), drop to the command prompt and ssh into Linux servers and start their day of work.

The questions I have is what is MS intending?  

Are they trying to setup a simple launching space for their Cloud based Azure? (Which is really Ubuntu)...that does not seem likely as the Bash shell is really light-weight...a lot of the system features are, as described, missing. Maybe more features later?  

Will this Bash shell be enough to tempt systems people into using it? Typically, developers make multiple shells when working. Does Windows 10 have the capability? Can the Windows 10 OS handle multi-processed and potentially multi-users, needed?

Is Microsoft trying to replace its own Power shell? As more and more features and servers move to the web; maybe it is an attempt to train Microsoft developers and start them easy...those who are not familiar with Linux how to work in the new environment?

Maybe Microsoft is planning to replace its own command layer with the more common Bash shell?

Maybe the Bash shell is nothing more than a training tool?

These are some of the questions I just can not answer. The Bash shell has been well publicized but is it going to be useful in the long run? Considering, that virtually any computer can install a full server version of Linux, go headless or add any distro desired and virtualize dozens of copies, limited only by the RAM and hard drive space, of, for example Windows 10, support many users and have direct access to any network or Cloud based data farm...and this can all be, initially, accomplished with a 30+GB OS.

Maybe I am missing the whole picture? Maybe I can not see Windows 10, as any more than a very pretty single user desktop, designed for running office apps and handling emails?

Aside: I contacted Microsoft to get a fully operational pre-release copy of this Bash shell (There are some hacked versions...I suspect someone in Canonical released it, but the version is not fully functional and I have only tried to run on Linux). The reps initially said they had no idea what I was talking about and finally stated that they have been told to say nothing until the official release sometime in the summer.

Jim
     
----- Original Message -----
From: "Salakhetdinov Shamil" <mcp2004 at mail.ru>
To: "Discussion of Hardware and Software issues" <dba-tech at databaseadvisors.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 5, 2016 4:46:17 AM
Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] Microsoft is bringing the Bash shell to Windows 10

 Hi Jim --

Thank you for your detailed comment. Let's wait to see what the Bash Shell will be in this summer Win10 upgrade.
I suppose it should be a default feature to run as many Bash Shells instances as needed as you can currently run many win cmd shells...

Multi-processing, background and parallel processing, isolation layers - all that processing modes are available in Win10.

--- Shamil