I built a service whose primary client is a CLI program. I was thinking about building that client for Windows as well (not just WSL). My target users are generally technically-proficient so I’d rather not build a whole GUI app if it’s unnecessary. But I honestly have no idea how often Windows users use CLI tools beyond some Windows admin stuff.
So if Windows is your daily driver, how often do you leverage the shell and how unusual would it be to use CLI tools in your workflows?
You certainly can but it really takes a special kind of user to be comfortable with it. Powershell is pretty alright, it’s powerful despite being pretty gnarly and awkward. It’s certainly not my preference, and I think most end-users would (and do) find it terrifying. Not that bash doesn’t have warts too. Powershell is a bit of an ugly duckling. It’s not nice to look at but I’m always a bit surprised at how comprehensive Powershell really is.
In my experience though, at least at my workplace, most serious command-line users go directly to Mac or Linux, or run WSL or Git-bash on Windows. Not many people except hardcore Microsoft sysadmins really prefer Powershell and I doubt many people at all prefer Cmd.exe, ugh.