Most folks who read by blog are probably software developer types, but if you are one of those software developer types with a bit of a systems background you might be interested to know that Microsoft has just released the first BETA of their upcoming system administrator orientated command-line shell code-named Monad.
You can download the Microsoft Command Shell from BetaPlace. You will need a Passport account (like you don’t have one already), and the “mshPDC” guest ID once you get past the initial registration.
I’ve really been looking forward to this. Windows has long needed a command-line shell replacement to put it on par with some of the shells available on UNIX platforms. Many system administrators have actually gone as far as using Cygwin to get the shell capabilities that they need.
The good news is that Monad pushes the envelope just like .NET did for developers all those years ago. As a former system administrator I am really excited about the consistency in the experience and as a developer I am really excited about the .NET-based extensibility points.
To run it you need to have the .NET 2.0 BETA 2 runtime installed – but its definately worth checking out.