I was actually expecting a new GUI shell for the recent windows versions. I used to run bb4win in the w2k times, but it doesn't look like win 7/8 have any popular alternative shells available. Does anyone know of those?
alt-space > e > p becomes pure muscle memory.
It's actually a really elegant key combination that I definitely did not have to look up 10 times before it stuck because no other program uses it.
And of course powershell, which doesn't Get-Have-The-Most-Over-Verbose-And-Stupid-Naming-Conventions-Ever and have a terrible language design that results in [console]::writeline("Powershell {0} being a complete farce", "not") solves a lot of these problems.
1. Clink [−7½] and PSReadLine [𝜋] both enable you to press Ctrl+V. On Unix-likes you're told to use a better terminal emulator to handle such cases nicely (something like ytcxbcixvt or what's hot these days) and most people don't think twice about heeding that advice, yet on Windows people willingly suffer, grumbling and complaining?
2. gal and Tab help a lot. And I actually prefer commands like Import-Csv over things like almf in readability (at least they weren't formed by bashing your head on the keyboard). But that might just be me.
3. 'PowerShell {0} being a complete farce' -f 'not'. In the scripts I've written I could probably count the number of [Console]::WriteLine calls on one hand (unary).
Turning on tab completion requires some fiddling though (and I have no idea if it survives in newer version of Windows).
(I anyway wouldn't try to defend them as solutions, just clarifications of what is possible)
I have to admin Winboxen all day, so I should try it out with Windows 7. I have not used it in ages. What is said is, last time I had this inclination, they lost part of their CVS/SVN history (after a recent upgrade) in part due to lapsing hosting or something.
I think I begged for a copy of the repo for nostalgia and got it from a newer dev.
Long live Litestep! Try to have a student hack into a Windows kiosk running Litestep, and boy oh boy will they (and so did I) find it difficult to get into system tools on the spot!
If I recall correctly, the Windows XP release managed to stabilize the Explorer shell quite a bit (compared to Win9x) which in turn decreased the demand for a lightweight, stable and customizable replacements.
1. Command-line shell (cmd, PowerShell, bash, whatnot)
2. GUI shell / desktop environment (Explorer, Gnome, KDE)
3. Console host / terminal emulator (conhost, console2, conemu, xterm, ...)
Invariable all of those are referred to as »shell«, sometimes even by people who ought to know better. The linked site makes the same mistake. It's not a new shell for Windows, it's just zsh bundled with cygwin.