UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

I was thinking about pros and cons of unix and about comparison Unix shell (bash) and unix commands with Windows PowerShell and its commands. I just would like to hear what do you mean about:

1. Aren't options of unix commands too much confusing? Why are not standardized in a way that it's "easy" to guess what option one need. It seems to me that unix scripting is a thing where you can "enjoy yourself" but you have to be still worried about type of distribution and so on - isn't it actually drawback?

2. I've tried Windows PowerShell and I was quite surprised about power of the shell and that the authors tended to use quite similar syntax and similar names of commands (tee command). On the other hand if you want to change the wallpaper you pretty much need to know how to do that - so it's quite complicated what matters "system settings". What do you mean?

I'm just curious what do think people who do with unix daily.. I just study unix for an exam and use windows normally so I can't properly judge the advantages and disadvantages of unix..

Thank you!

For a start windows runs only on one type of processor or its clones...
have you seen winXX running on pa-risc, motorola 68XXX, or power-pc etc..?

windows is one OS, *x are many OS that have many common things... have you tried to execute a win batch on an unix? it fails... and how much work is involved to porting?
a *.sh on any unix platform should run with minimum of adaptation...

@vbe: Well, sure, but I was talking more about shell commands.. about the interface

What you are really talking about is the learning curve.

2jim: well, partly too, yes

Windows developed Powershell as a response to developers installing linux or cygwin (free unix that runs under windows) in order to be able to manipulate text and files easily. There used to be a windows toolset that was a port of basic unix tools.

The reason is that every OS has good and bad points. You choose what you want to live with.

Those windows add-ons are there to get past windows deficiencies. The java virtual machine is a classic example. Linux Gnome and UNIX Xwindows, etc., behave very much like MS windows and are later add-ons in the same sense - in this case getting past user interface issues in UNIX. UNIX did not have MS-like windowing software to start with.

And these are just the user interface issues. And functionality.

There are a lot of very important issues with Windows and security for example. My company interfaces with the internet only via UNIX/Apache Tomcat, a firewall, NAT, etc. because putting a Windows 2003 server out there was not a safe idea. UNIX is cheaper and probably easier to harden.

Windows was and is primarily a single user OS, UNIX is multiuser. This gives rise to features and problems as well.

This whole discussion is analogous to: which is a better motorcar: Mercedes-Benz or BMW? It boils down to personal opinion and experience. There are other threads like this - what is you favorite <fill in the blank>. There really isn't much content in threads like this one. And they tend to start flame wars.

@jim: thank you for your viewpoint ;-)

> This whole discussion is analogous to: ...
I know but you won't persuade me it's not worthy to ask it ...