PowerShell is open sourced and is available on Linux

Long HN thread ensues. Many of the comments discuss the benefits/costs of basing pipes on typed objects rather than text streams. As someone who should be inclined in favor of the typed object approach I have to say that I think the text-only folks have the upper hand at the moment. Primary reason is that text as a lingua franca between programs ensures interoperability (and insurance against future changes to underlying object models) and self-documenting code. Clearly the Achilles' heel is parsing/unparsing.

As happens often, one is reminded of the discussions of DSLs and pipelines in Jon Bentley's Programming Pearls...