Microsoft open sources PowerShell, brings it to Linux and OS X
Microsoft today announced that it is open sourcing PowerShell and bringing it to Linux and OS X. — PowerShell is Microsoft's command line shell for Windows power users, as well as an extensible scripting language for automating system tasks.
Context & Ripple Effects
This move caps a year of deliberate groundwork: Microsoft had already signaled its command-line intentions by bringing SSH to Windows and PowerShell in mid-2015, and weeks earlier shipped .NET Core 1.0, which put the runtime underneath PowerShell onto Linux and OS X. Open sourcing the shell is the logical next step once the runtime it depends on already runs there.
The significance is directional rather than isolated: a decade later the same arc continues, with Microsoft open-sourcing the Windows Subsystem for Linux and shipping Linux-like command-line utilities for Windows. PowerShell going cross-platform and open source in 2016 is an early data point in that reversal of Microsoft's traditional closed-Windows posture.
First-order effects
- Administrators running mixed Windows and Linux estates gain a single shell and scripting language that works across both, instead of maintaining separate automation stacks per platform.
- The PowerShell codebase moves into the open, letting external developers inspect, fork, and contribute to a tool that was previously a Windows-only proprietary component.
Second-order effects
- Linux distributions and OS X users become a potential install base for Microsoft tooling, pulling Microsoft's developer ecosystem onto platforms where it previously had no shell presence.
- Third-party automation vendors and IT shops that built on PowerShell for Windows now face a choice between staying Windows-bound or following the shell cross-platform, reshaping the market for system-management tooling around whichever path they pick.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds — .NET Core, then PowerShell, then WSL and Linux-style utilities — Windows converges toward a cross-platform developer platform where Microsoft's tools are defined by their openness rather than by OS exclusivity.
- Server management consolidates around portable, open-source shells and runtimes, weakening the historical lock-in that tied administrative tooling to a single vendor's operating system.
The trend: Microsoft is progressively dismantling the wall between its own tooling and rival operating systems, turning formerly Windows-exclusive technologies into open-source, cross-platform projects.