Comments on: cmd.exe for Linux zealots

By: Goten Xiao

Goten Xiao — Fri, 30 May 2008 13:12:20 +0000

A classic example of why cmd is unusable; of why it is a toy, and why I can’t use it efficiently compared to bash, zsh, tcsh or ksh.

G:\music>dir/w
Volume in drive G has no label.
Volume Serial Number is 4786-4F2F

Directory of G:\music

[.] [..]
[{2005} Octavarium [FLAC]] [{2002} Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence [FLAC]]
[misc]
0 File(s) 0 bytes
5 Dir(s) 694,267,904 bytes free

G:\music>dir *\*.flac
The filename, directory name, or volume label syntax is incorrect.

Now, compare and contrast to the equivalent in bash:

goten@r2d3:~/tmp15$ ls
{2002} Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence [FLAC] {2005} Octavarium [FLAC] misc
goten@r2d3:~/tmp15$ ls */*.flac
{2002} Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence [FLAC]/[°1] The Glass Prison.flac {2005} Octavarium [FLAC]/[03] These Walls.flac
{2002} Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence [FLAC]/[°2] Blind Faith.flac {2005} Octavarium [FLAC]/[04] I Walk Beside You.flac
{2002} Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence [FLAC]/[°3] Misunderstood.flac {2005} Octavarium [FLAC]/[05] Panic Attack.flac
{2002} Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence [FLAC]/[°4] The Great Debate.flac {2005} Octavarium [FLAC]/[06] Never Enough.flac
{2002} Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence [FLAC]/[°5] Disappear.flac {2005} Octavarium [FLAC]/[07] Sacrificed Sons.flac
{2005} Octavarium [FLAC]/[01] The Root of All Evil.flac {2005} Octavarium [FLAC]/[08] Octavarium.flac
{2005} Octavarium [FLAC]/[02] The Answer Lies Within.flac

By: Sanders MSMVP

Sanders MSMVP — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 23:48:58 +0000

Anyone who has worked on both operating systems will release Sanders is talking out of his arse. You don’t “upgrade the entire operating system to upgrade open office” nor any other program on it. Unless you are either using a very, very, very old version of Linux or are being paid to spread pure lies.

Second, Linux can use Windows domains quite easily and act as a domain controller itself. Please, if you are going to be a paid shill at least be honest and upfront.

By: Tzafrir Cohen

Tzafrir Cohen — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 15:57:15 +0000

One baisc weakness of cmd.exe’s syntax is the variable expansion is different in scripts than in the CLI (%% vs. %).

Not to mention backticks, decent redirection (2>/dev/null), and such.

The author manages to completely miss the point regarding package management. For example: what is the equivalent of ‘apt-get upgrade’?

Maybe the Windows-Updates facility has been automated (and maybe not). But it does not update any thinrd-party product installed. Because without a repository the system does not know where to pull updates from.

Now do that on 100 workstations.

By: Peter Ring

Peter Ring — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 11:32:00 +0000

PowerShell is worthwhile for all kinds of automation on Windows, comes built-in with Windows Server 2008, and is easily installed on Windows XP SP2 or later.

Windows PowerShell

Blog of Windows PowerShell team

I’d also like to mention a hidden gem, LogParser.

By: Pandu Rao

Pandu Rao — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 03:50:07 +0000

While cmd.exe is useful, it lacks many things. For e.g:
readline keybindings
command line substitution
robust redirection capabilities
advanced terminal capabilities

I have written a set of articles on how Linux power users can get by in the windows world:
Advanced Cygwin:
http://ergo.rydlr.net/?p=4

PuttyCyg - The authentic console for Cygwin
http://ergo.rydlr.net/?p=3

By: Sanders

Sanders — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 20:59:22 +0000

I wish that there was an AD equivalent built-in on the Linux distros…

I know Samba 4 is coming, and I hope it does provide with tools that enable remote windows and linux boxes administration ala Windows.

I love and use linux, but IMHO even with all of its shortcomings windows does two things much better:

1) Logical network grouping/administration of the workstations/servers (sorry ssh doesn’t cut it, requires far too much manual intervention to properly manage the keys)

2) More stable environment (Ie: I do not have to upgrade the whole windows system just to get a new version of openoffice installed)