While I’m putting together my next big post, I thought I’d take some time to throw confetti into the air. There may be some excited clapping as well. I warned you.
I largely see myself as platform-agnostic. While I think that certain companies do individual products well, I also believe it’s fair to say that none of them do everything well. I use Android phones and Apple tablets, Linux for home (mostly) and Windows at work. Heck, I’ve got a Roku and a Chromecast because they both do things that the other doesn’t. I’m all over the map, but all over the map is a great place to be, especially in the tech industry now.
Despite all of this, I have to admit I am partial to Free Open-Source Software (FOSS). Give me a choice between Ubuntu and Windows, and all other things being equal, I’ll choose the Debian-based option. I’ll admit my biases.
So, when MS started moving in this direction I was happy. I wanted to see this trend continue, and boy has it. First of all…
1. .NET Core is now running on Redhat.
When Microsoft announced that .Net was going open-source, I was cautiously optimistic. I’m not a big .Net coder, but I could see the benefit and was hopeful that MS would continue down this path. This lead to some cool things that I thought I’d never see in a million years, like .Net running on Redhat.
There’s understandably some cynicism about Microsoft’s true intentions, as well as their long term goals, but this is the cross-over that I’ve been wanting to happen for a while. Blending the strengths of RHEL with .NET on top is a great start. If the .NET development platform can be ported, why not parts of the Windows Management Framework? We could even one day see…
2. Powershell on OSX and Linux.
I didn’t always like Powershell, in fact prior to Powershell 3, I just referred to it as PowerHell. Since 4.0, however, it’s no secret that I’m a fan; one look at my github will tell you that. I like its logical approach to (most) things and that it works for simple scripts quite easily, while being a powerhouse (no pun intended) behind the scenes.
This shell coming to OSX and Linux will be a boon for both systems. While I am, and will probably always be, a bash scripting guy, Powershell in Windows just makes everything so gosh-darn easy. If I could whip up a PS1 script with a few imported modules and attach it to a cron job with ease, then I think everybody wins, but mostly me. But, if I decide that I want to use bash instead, that’s okay because…
3. Bash is running on Windows.
This isn’t a one way transition. Microsoft is making a trade, bringing one of the most widely used shells to Windows. This not only makes scripts more portable, but also knowledge.
Have some ultra-fast Linux bash script that works wonders? Super, you now have it Windows, too. Wrote a script to do some directory work in Powershell? Great, you now know how to do it in Linux.
There are very few downsides to this, other than the obvious security issues and that it isn’t truly a stand-alone shell (it’s part of Ubuntu on Windows). In any case, it allows interoperability between software from different systems. This is great now that…
This isn’t technically going open source, as it will run inside a container, but the idea that this will now be possible and supported is like something out of my greatest dreams.
I have a maybe-controversial opinion that SQL Server is the best relational database system out there. For all its faults, I’d rather use SQL Server 2005 SP1 than Oracle 12c. Just the way I feel, and for reasons I won’t go into here. I hope the things I like about SQL Server translate to the Linux environment.
The fact that Ubuntu is supporting this with Microsoft is great. I can’t wait to use my favorite OS with my favorite database engine on the same system.
Last thoughts
There are other items I’ve glossed over, but these are the big ones to me. Soon, we will be able to run SQL Server on Ubuntu Linux with cron jobs executing Powershell for a .Net application that resides on an RHEL box. *excited clapping* (I warned you.)
It’s a great time to be in the tech industry.
-Charlton Julius
CJ Julius 
You must be logged in to post a comment.