PowerShell as default shell on Ubuntu

Now that Microsoft are making its technologies Linux friendly, it is time for me to commit to using Linux even more. I really like PowerShell and I am tired of having to go back and forth between it and bash when switching. With that said, I decided I would just install PowerShell on my Ubuntu 16.04 box and make it my default shell.

Step 1: Install PowerShell

To make PowerShell my default, I need to first have it installed. I followed the instructions outlined here which are really good and give you a step by step as to what is needed. Note that you can also install using the .deb package.

Step 2: Set PowerShell as default

This took a little digging, as I typically don’t go this deep in shells. The first command I ran was to see if PowerShell was even detected as a shell that I could use.

cat /etc/shells

This returned:

# /etc/shells: valid login shells
/bin/sh
/bin/dash
/bin/bash
/bin/rbash
/usr/bin/powershell

Right there, last in the list is PowerShell. With some quick digging there is a utlity chsh that changes your shell. A quick -h after that command helped me figure out the correct incantation. So here it is to spare you the effort.

chsh -s /usr/bin/powershell <your-username>

You will be prompted for your password. After that, logout of the system and log back in. Launch your default terminal and you should be greeted with this:

That is all, thanks for reading.

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