So what is going to happen for PowerShell in 2018?
In April we have the Summit. Our biggest ever Summit with many more speakers, more sessions and new things including Iron Scripter. We’ll be starting the build up in early January so keep an eye on powershell.org.
PowerShell v6 will be GA in January. This is the point where you have decisions to make. Do you ignore v6; try and use v6 only or attempt some kind of dual use. Only your needs can answer what is the right solution for you but multiple PowerShell versions combined with multiple versions of Windows server – there’ll be feature updates in Match and September if plans remain the same – will definitely raise complications.
What should you be doing in 2018?
If you haven’t booked a Summit place and want to go then don’t be too late in registering. Sales have been much faster than last year and I suspect we’ll sell out early in 2018. We will have another batch of places available on alumni discount in January.
The Windows compatibility pack for .NET core (still seems ironic that’s its needed) will become available. That will plug some, but not all, of the gaps in functionality between v6 and v5.1. I’d recommend learning, or possibly re-learning, how to write scripts using System.DirectoryServices as it seems likely to be the only way to administer AD from v6 in the near future.
If you haven’t evaluated v6 then do so – side by side install with v5.1 makes that easier.
If you follow the PowerShell project on github you’ll see that v6.1 is already under discussion. I’d recommend that you join the discussion and help shape the future of PowerShell.
What would I like to see in 2018?
All the Windows inbuilt and RSAT modules modified to work with v6.
A simple and effective way to install and configure OpenSSH for PowerShell remoting on Windows – without having to install chocolaty or other third party features
A good set of cmdlets for managing containers