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PowerShell is coming to Linux and Mac. Microsoft announced Thursday that its automation and scripting system is breaking out of the confines of Windows and going open source. The company is also releasing alpha versions of PowerShell for Linux (specifically Ubuntu, Centos and Redhat) and Mac OS X. A new PowerShell GitHub page gives people the ability to download binaries of the software, as well as access to the app's source code. PowerShell on Linux and Mac will let people who have already built proficiency with Microsoft's scripting language take those skills and bring them to new platforms. Meanwhile, people who are used to working on those platforms will have access to a new and very powerful tool for getting work done. It's part of Microsoft's ongoing moves to open up products that the company has previously kept locked to platforms that it owned. The company's open sourcing of its .NET programming frameworks in 2014 paved the way for this launch, by making the building blocks of PowerShell available on Linux and OS X. Jeffrey Snover, a Microsoft technical fellow and the architect of PowerShell, said in an interview that the core engine and cmdlets will be the same across PowerShell on Windows, Linux and Mac. Some cmdlets that use Windows-only features won't be available on other platforms, and PowerShell scripts written for Windows may have to be modified to work on Linux and Mac. Snover said that Microsoft is still working on finalizing some of PowerShell's remote access capabilities on Linux. But once that's done, administrators will be able to use PowerShell on Windows to remotely manage a fleet of Linux systems, something that customers have been wanting for some time. They'll also be able to manage them on AWS, thanks to a partnership between Microsoft and Amazon, its biggest competitor in the cloud wars. New AWS cmdlets for PowerShell make it possible for users to administer services in the cloud. VMware has also partnered with Microsoft to release new cmdlets for PowerShell that work across platforms, too. github page : https://github.com/PowerShell/PowerShell source : http://www.computerworld.com/article/3109335/open-source-tools/microsoft-powershell-goes-open-source-and-lands-on-linux-and-mac.html who need powershell if bash shell is better ?