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Windows Server 2019 Includes OpenSSH

blogs.windows.com

121–130 of 296 posts

Re: Windows Server 2019 Includes OpenSSH

#121

As someone who just started working as a developer and is using windows for the first time in 4.5 years, I can't believe how much I miss ssh and command line tools for everything... ssh keys would solve so much trouble with scripting and credentials... Also sudo...

As a developer do you have to use the Windows GUI or can you use eg the Ubuntu Windows Subsystem for Linux? I highly recommend it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Subsystem_for_Linux

Re: Windows Server 2019 Includes OpenSSH

#122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They can browse your private projects though so nobody in the right mind would use them to run cutting edge business.

Github Enterprise is self hosted which eliminates that issue

GitLab can be self-hosted for free and provides a complete DevOps platform.

Re: Windows Server 2019 Includes OpenSSH

#123

Microsoft is becoming the defacto leader in open source.

MS has always worked against users leaving Windows for free operating systems and I doubt that this is changing.

They don't care what you use on Azure, they make money if you're on free operating systems or Windows.

Take a look at the picture: https://www.theverge.com/2016/9/15/12926288/microsoft-really...

Re: Windows Server 2019 Includes OpenSSH

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft has come a really long way recently towards moving to CLI-based management. Starting with Server 2016, the default installation method of Windows Server no longer includes most of the GUI (called the Desktop Experience), leaving you with a command prompt window in the middle of the screen instead. An even thinner version of Windows Server, Nano Server, is also available, and includes even less GUI, being mu…

They started on this in the late 2000s when I was an intern there. But there was a lot to untangle. It’s the biggest refactoring job you can imagine. A decade long effort. Back then they didn’t really understand the point of ssh though. They had a vision of remote management via .net RPC and powershell.

I dont know if that means they didnt understand it. It reads like they were trying to solve the underlying problems with a different approach.

SSH is an awesome tool & capability as a relatively high level network channel. The defacto “shell” approach leads to a lot of problems when used as a management device. It encourages adhoc, unstructured, and opaque changes. Managing your hosts via Secure Shell simply leads to bespoke, unrepeatable, outcomes and crushing debt.

Moving to a well structered, repeatable, management paradigm is the only way to survive large or long term deployments. I see “systems configuration” and “orchestration” as the most common ways to achieve that. Personally Ive been trying to move linux/bsd host management off of SSH for 10 years now. I will be very very happy when SSH shell instantiations approach zero per day.

Re: Windows Server 2019 Includes OpenSSH

#125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve been developing on and for Windows for 20 years and just started doing anything with Linux earlier this year. If you told me I had to do anything advanced with Windows using only a CLI, I wouldn’t know where to start. On the other hand, I could maneuver my way around a bash shell. I haven’t thought about that before now.....

I think it's time for MS to develop a new ANSI/VT-compliant, text-oriented shell (to complement PowerShell, which is largely object- and API-oriented). There ought to be a default shell worth using on the other end when you ssh into a Windows server :) cmd.exe and DOS were both text-oriented but extremely buggy and inconsistent. Perhaps MS could just focus on providing a very bash-like language (perhaps even include…

I doubt you'd see Microsoft reinvent the wheel here. They'd more likely work to give WSL more ability to interact with Windows, and then let you just use that shell if you want to.

Re: Windows Server 2019 Includes OpenSSH

#126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They started on this in the late 2000s when I was an intern there. But there was a lot to untangle. It’s the biggest refactoring job you can imagine. A decade long effort. Back then they didn’t really understand the point of ssh though. They had a vision of remote management via .net RPC and powershell.

I dont know if that means they didnt understand it. It reads like they were trying to solve the underlying problems with a different approach. SSH is an awesome tool & capability as a relatively high level network channel. The defacto “shell” approach leads to a lot of problems when used as a management device. It encourages adhoc, unstructured, and opaque changes. Managing your hosts via Secure Shell simply leads to…

They already had group policy for structured administration. What Windows was missing specifically was a non-GUI way for that unstructured "get in there and fix the problem" work flow. Structured workflows may well be better for you, but quick and dirty has a lot of appeal.

Sometimes you just have to give people the candy they want - even if its not good for them.

Re: Windows Server 2019 Includes OpenSSH

#127
post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I understand NT already abstracts Win 32/64 APIs roughly the same way it abstracts the POSIX ones -- if they switched to Linux kernel + an abstraction layer for Win 64 (Official Microsoft Wine, basically) that's one less kernel and one less abstraction to maintain (WSL replaced by the kernel's native interface). I would happily pay for and operate such a product -- especially if I could install such a "Wind…

WSL doesn't actually run a Linux kernel - it's a linux api mapping, just like csrss is a Win32 mapping, to the windows kernel calls. So they're already only running one kernel, but it's NT.

"One less kernel" here didn't refer to them having a linux kernel and not needing it, it referred to them having and maintaining NT but not needing it (instead, utilizing an external Linux kernel).

Re: Windows Server 2019 Includes OpenSSH

#128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of those GUIs are just wrappers for the CLI to begin with. Heck, the default installation of windows does not even have a GUI. People ahem really need to update their thinking of what it means to be Windows.

That's misleading at best (GUI windows apps that technically can be emulated from the commandline often practically cannot be--CLI tools or the registry/config-file interactions required to perform actions that are clearly exposed and well-documented in the GUI often have nonexistent or terrible documentation. In even marginally complex apps, this puts the effort required to script the functionality of the GUI on par…

AFAIK, the only way that you can even set a system wide environment variable without using the GUI is by using Powershell to modify the system registry.

Re: Windows Server 2019 Includes OpenSSH

#129
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is almost undeniable. Seems like everyone and their mother are using vscode, typescript is huge, .NET Core is FOSS, PowerShell is now open source, etc etc. The Language Server Protocol has revolutionized IDEs in general. And now that they own GitHub (and their projects like Atom), it seems like the entire FOSS developer workflow is likely to be from MS-derived projects. Which I'm sure they are hoping will transl…

They can browse your private projects though so nobody in the right mind would use them to run cutting edge business.

I’m the farthest thing in the world from an open source zealot. But, I can’t think of a single company that lives or dies by its source code being a secret.

If I had all of the source code from any of the FAANG companies what would I do with it? The only one that may be valuable is Google and I could make a killing from knowing how to do SEO. But even then it would take an army of very smart developers to figure it out.

Re: Windows Server 2019 Includes OpenSSH

#130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How is it misleading at all? Hyper-V Manager for example is literally a wrapper for Powershell commands. Virtually all Windows administration can be done entirely in Powershell. And like I said, the literal default installation of Windows does not even include a GUI.

What do you consider the "literal default installation"?

Something very, very different to everyone else, it would seem.
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