Don Jones - Shell of an Idea: The Untold History of PowerShell

My history with Windows administrative automation goes back a long way, at least to my 2003 book, Managing Windows with VBScript and WMI (Addison-Wesley). A bestseller of the time, it put me on the map as someone who spoke about, taught, and wrote about Windows automation. It helped drive my first Microsoft MVP Award recognition in 2004 and made it natural for me to jump into Windows PowerShellthen called Monadwhen it hit the scene in 2005.

I was honored to co-present with Jeffrey Snover at TechEd Europe 2006 in Barcelona, where Microsoft formally launched PowerShell and introduced it to the world. I wrote the first published book on PowerShell, Windows PowerShell: TFM (SAPIEN Press) and have in total written or co-authored close to a dozen books on PowerShell. Learn Windows PowerShell in a Month of Lunches (Manning Books) remains a go-to bestseller for newcomers, and PowerShell In Depth (Manning) is still a top reference for PowerShell admins. I co-founded PowerShell.org, launched the PowerShell + DevOps Global Summit with my partner, and was named PowerShells First Follower by Jeffrey Snover at the first Microsoft Ignite events in Chicago. I coined the terms Toolmaker and Toolmaking within the PowerShell world, and have been an advocate for strong practices and patterns. I even substituted for Jeffrey Snover as a speaker at the TechEd North America 2007 conference. Suffice to say that PowerShell has been an enormous part of my life and career.

Over the years, Ive made a ton of good friends in the PowerShell community, which is easily one of the friendliest and most down-to-earth group of technologists Ive ever met. My office has a small collection of the thoughtful, tongue-in-cheek mementos theyve given me: a CIA challenge coin, a Lego minifig of myself, a beer stein with PowerShell and Disneys Figment character etched into it, and more. My career has taken me away from the day-to-day engagements with both the technology and that audience, but theyve both been such a huge part of my life and career that I can never step fully away.

In fact, that was the genesis for this book: I just cant let PowerShell go. Its not only been important to me, but its also been hugely important and impactful to so many people in the industry. And yet PowerShell almost never happened. In fact, it almost never happened more than once. Were it not for a team of passionate visionaries willing to make the occasional possibly-career-limiting moves, PowerShelland all the positive impact its createdwouldnt have existed. PowerShell might have just been a port of Unix KornShell, or it might have just been a WMI querying tool. Or it might not have been a thing at all.

Theres a lot of untold story under the shell, and its a story I wanted to tell. Much of PowerShells core team have moved on to other teams or even to other companies. Nobodys getting any younger. I felt it was time to capture their stories and the shells story while I could still track everyone down. Some bits of the story have been told at conferences or in other venues, but its never been pulled together into one placeand its never been told in its entirety.

If youve worked with PowerShell, then Shell of an Idea should provide some fascinating backstory to it. If you havent worked with PowerShell but youre at least conversant with computers and systems administration, then youre in for a real treat. As much as possible Ive tried to wrap context around the stories so that you can see where they fit into the world, and what PowerShell struggled against and sought to solve.

Ive also included a number of quotes, solicited through my blog at DonJones.com. These may seem out of context as I present them, but theyre intended to provide some background for the people that PowerShell has impacted the most. Ive edited these as lightly as possible for length and clarity because I feel that the effect of the shells story is just as important as the story itself. Heres one example: