I am in no way calling a user stupid. My point is that installing an OS, as simple as it seems to anyone who has done it a few times is still a learned skill. It requires knowing how to make bootable media, what drives are, what partitions are, etc. It's a skill and one that I wouldn't expect average users to have. They expect to use the computer, not work on the computer.

While most linux distros are damn easy to install. It's not so easy for an average user anymore. Most new laptops and desktops are missing that cdrom drive all together and making a bootable usb disk isn't as easy as burning an iso (which many people are incapable of doing anyway).

Installing an OS might as well be magic for 70% of users.

Because we can expect that in powershell the output of one command is immediately useful as the input of another. Something that typically can't be done with a text based shell. Instead of "run command", "parse output into usable form of input" "run next command" You can skip that 2nd step.

It speeds of script development and allows you to have vastly superior filtering and control of the data without the middle men.

You probably don't have the AD cmdlets installed. Install the RSAT tools on your desktop or try the command from a server.

Well being that linux on azure is a huge business for MS, I think it will probably run pretty well eventually. I think at this stage MS is hoping the community does that work for them, but in the end I expect they will do it.

I don't think you understand me. I was a solaris and redhat admin for over a decade before moving to windows. I know what we can do with a *nix shell. Powershell has abilities that are down right hard to match simple because you are not working with text, you are working with powershell objects. This means input and output from all cmdlets is instantly usable.

Example, let's say I need to get a list of users out of active directory that have not accessed the system in the last 30 days and deactivate them.

Search-ADAccount -AccountInactive -TimeSpan 30.00:00:00 | where {$_.ObjectClass -eq 'user'} | Disable-ADAccount

I don't need to try to deal with the output of these commands as text. I can simply trust that the object put out by each command is compatible with every other command.

Let's take it a little further. I run vmware and I have developers who abandon test machines. I have installed the vmware powercli extensions to powershell. I now want to find machines that are inactive in my network and straight up delete them from vmware. These machines are 90 days inactive.

(assuming I've already issued the command to connect to my vmware environment)
$lastSetdate = [DateTime]::Now - [TimeSpan]::Parse("90")
$computersToDelete = Get-ADComputer -Filter {PasswordLastSet -le $lastSetdate} -SearchBase “OU=Dev,OU=Servers,DC=mylab,DC=com”
$computersToDelete | Remove-ADComputer
Get-VM $computersToDelete | Remove-VM

You combine this with tools like DSC and you have a very powerful toolset to manage your environment. No need for puppet and no need to try to string a bunch of random exes with their own input and output together to do something interesting. Also, because it is .NET I can do anything with it that .NET can do (for better or worse).

*Note, these scripts were written on the fly without testing, they may contain errors*

Powershell can be really powerful. Everything is a object and it allows you to easily write your own cmdlets and modules to extend the shell. No more parsing the text output of one command to create input to another. It's really very slick.

The future for them is linux. There is no value in writing operating systems as we move to the cloud. The value is in charging monthly to host those systems and writing tools to use and manage those systems.

Exactly,

I have a 65inch 4K screen at home, my favorite recliner, and the ability to pause and take a piss. Why would I ever want to spend 20 bucks on popcorn and 15 bucks on a ticket to sit with the rabble and watch a movie I can't pause? Not to mention the filth, noise, and other garbage. Miss a moment? Too bad! You can't rewind! Drank that coke too fast? Well I hope you don't mind missing 5 minutes of that film. Don't worry though you can just talk over it when you get back to find out what you missed!

Exactly, I keep my windows desktop for 1 reason and one reason only. If you ruin my large collection of games I will have no reason to keep my windows PC around anymore. I"ll just go back to what I used before, linux.

If you keep your mail local you will know when the government gives you a warrant to access your server.

I didn't say it was a good idea, I told you how you might store power to use it when the panel was not generating power. I didn't realize this was such a personal issue for you. Please, from the bottom of my heart. I am sorry for the stress and anger caused by my inflammatory suggestion. I hope that one day in the future we can meet and I can hug you and after a short cry we can both realize that this road wasn't worth it.

Use solar power to pressurize tanks or some other form of power storage, use off peak power to keep roads clean.

Honestly, and this is not scientific, but windows 10 'feels' faster on my PC than windows 7. I also find it visually more appealing. It also has a smaller footprint. Lastly the pace of change and some of the nice features coming down the pipe makes it worth it (ubuntu, path limits, etc). Server manager and powershell features are very nice as well as an admin.

I really like windows 10. Before this I was a die hard OSX guy simply because linux on the desktop still required me to tinker too much to keep my laptop happy. I got a surface pro 3 with windows 10 for work and it and now I'm hooked.

You should just keep a few bitcoin miners around to turn on during that time period. It might be the only way to make a profit mining bitcoins!