Open-source PowerShell?

Microsoft may be considering plonking PowerShell on GitHub under an open-source license – and, curiously, the Windows giant isn't denying the rumor.

It's believed Core PowerShell – the heart of the automation and scripting tool – will be published here for all to download and compile, and that Linux and OS X builds will also be made available. This comes after the PowerShell team open-sourced a bunch of resources including PowerShell DSC last year, and .NET was opened up in 2014 as .NET Core. Microsofties have also been making noises about open-sourcing PowerShell.

Windows development watcher Tom Hounsell appears to have got his hands on an Ubuntu Linux .deb package of PowerShell that contains, in its metadata, a reference to a future home on GitHub. The software is described as an "open-source cross-platform scripting language and rich object shell," and is built on ".NET Core."

Just noticed this in the package metadata, guess that confirms @h0x0d's Open Source rumour for #PowerShell pic.twitter.com/seoHEMGpYj

— Tom Hounsell (@tomhounsell) July 27, 2016

He also says he's been able to get the binary running on Linux – the arch-nemesis of Microsoft Windows.

Thanks to @tfwboredom, I have managed to get PSCore for Linux working under WSL, though a bit buggy in consolehost pic.twitter.com/IKefp9JnFB

— Tom Hounsell (@tomhounsell) July 28, 2016

"Microsoft has nothing to share," a spokeswoman told us when we asked if any of this was true. ®