Windows Command Line to be overhauled

"The command line interface to the Windows Server OS will be changed to the new Monad Shell (MSH), in a phased implementation to take place over the next three to five years."

"Monad was started as a project to provide a more powerful command line competitive with the BASH shell on Unix and Linux, using ideas gleaned from WMIC, but using the .NET Framework as its core component instead."

Microsoft Senior Vice President Bob Muglia: Monad "will exceed what has been delivered in Linux and Unix for many years. It will take three to five years to fully develop and deliver." ...

In other Microsoft announcements, "at Microsoft's ongoing TechEd conference in Orlando, Microsoft corporate VP for security Gordon Mangione announced that Internet Explorer 7.0—available later this year—will run with reduced security privileges,"
and "Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer announced the impending availability of the next beta for Longhorn, the company's next-generation Windows, [is] due for commercial release in late 2006.

"Though Ballmer did not specify whether a beta for Longhorn Server was also pending, he did characterize Longhorn's eventual release as the most important for Microsoft since Windows 95."