A decade after its initial release, PowerShell is going open-source. Microsoft Corp. this morning published the code for the popular Windows configuration management tool on its GitHub page along with ports for Linux and Mac. The move is part of an ongoing effort by CEO Satya Nadella to target multi-platform use cases that started with Redmond opening up its .NET development framework in late 2014

Microsoft followed up the code rollout a few months later by creating.NET Core, a fork of the technology that works with other operating systems besides Windows. The project was later incorporated into the PowerShell code base and thus paved the way for the creation of the platform-agnostic version that is now available on GitHub. Microsoft says that administrators can now employ the tool to manage both their Windows and Linux servers, but there’s still a way to go before it’s ready for serious production use.

The open-source version of PowerShell only supports three Linux flavors on launch and provides limited interoperability with third party management software. So far only VMware Inc., Chef Inc. and a handful of other vendors have pledged to make their offerings compatible with the new release, but many more will no doubt follow in the future. In the background, Microsoft plans to make some additions of its own to the tool in an effort to streamline management operations for enterprise users.

The arguably biggest enhancement on the agenda is support for OpenSSH, which should make it easier to secure connections between desktop PowerShell clients and the backend servers they’re used to manage. Redmond is also adding a connector that makes it possible to plug the tool into popular code editors for Linux such as Vim, Emacs, Sublime Text and VS Code, the open-source version of its own Visual Studio development suite.

Yet despite the numerous changes that are being made to PowerShell, Microsoft says that administrators will be able to use it more or less the same way they did before. This means that organizations who plan on using the tool to manage their Linux servers won’t have to retrain their IT staff or hire new workers for the task. And those workers in turn will be able to make their skills more marketable.

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