There's no good way to refer to the entire DOS/Windows command shell lineage without confusion, but that's what I meant. I don't technically use DOS at all anymore. I think "that system" is easier to understand in it's entirety and find your way around than Unix, although it has been getting progressively more complex for years. I actually use OS X most of the time now (plus Linux on servers and Windows for 3D stuff).
> I think [DOS] is easier to understand in it's entirety and find your way around than Unix
Yikes, I recently had to do a bit of development on a windows box and I found the command-line tools (not to mention CMD itself, which seems to have stopped development in 1993) to be absolutely awful. I could barely survive without Cygwin, git bash, etc giving me some semblance of a functional shell setup. I guess it's different strokes for different folks.
I agree: awful tools and batch language is horrible (and largely non-portable between different versions). Getting complicated stuff to work can be tricky due to the lack of essential commands. For instance, there's no way to reliably get an ISO formatted datestamp without a 3rd party utility (although I think PowerShell supports this). Lots of odd little things like that simply don't work.
But the filesystem layout and set of built-in commands is pretty easy to understand fully. It's generally pretty easy to find things. In that sense Unix is more complex (but also more sensible, usually).
> But the filesystem layout and set of built-in commands is pretty easy to understand fully. It's generally pretty easy to find things.
On the face of it, the basic directories are straightforward (Programs -> \Progra~1, User files -> \Docume~1, System files -> \Window~1, Very System files -> \Window~1\System32), but I don't recall having an easy time finding things (speaking from memories of my XP days).
Where would you look for a config file of some application? Maybe it'll be in \Progra~1. Or $user\LocalSettings. Or ApplicationData. Maybe in the Registry? (Don't get me started about the registry!)
Where would you look for log files? Does the Event Viewer show everything nowadays, or do you still have to hunt for logfiles in the same fashion as config files?
On *nix, I know that my configs are under /etc/ (global) and ~/.{program name}/ (user-specific), and my logs are under /var/log/. I don't know what every single directory is, but I know where to look for things when I need to.
What really gets me is that MS almost fixed that with powershell -- and then made the defaults policies so restrictive that you need to go through hoops to actually be able to use the thing. I do get that it's "really powerful and lets not create another set of visual basic script viruses" -- but the UI is just horrible. Maybe it's better in 8, but last I checked I think you had to go into the policy editor and choose between "safe - no powershell for you", "safe-ish - only signed powershell (still no powershell for you) and: open season on shooting your feet off: powershell always, everywhere, all the time.
Don't get me wrong, I still prefer living with bash and a full GNU system -- it's just sad about what MS did (or didn't) do with their command line tools since 2003ish and on.
