My DOS and VMS background (along with high school typing classes) left me comfortable with text based tools. My problems with PS are many, none technical:

1) A lack of useful, free-to-cheap introductory training resources. I haven't seen a tutorial yet that demonstrated anything I'd do in the real world on even a quarterly basis. There was a recent 'Top 5 PowerShell Commands You Must Know' video here; none of them (or the linked 'Top 10 PS' article) were anything I saw as useful. Just me, I guess.

2) The apparent reliance of PowerShell and similar CLI tools on SQL and other relational database pre-requisites. My COBOL and FORTRAN programming days are almost two decades behind me, and I have no clue how modern programming languages work, how their syntax is arranged, or how the data fields and records that PS acts on are structured, arranged, layed out, etc. What little I've read on PS leaves me with the impression I have to learn SQL before I can get any value from it. Since I don't do database admin tasks, I'd be learning it just to use PS.

3) PS strikes me as a tool aimed at those who perform dozens or more of the same transaction at one time and on a frequent basis. I just don't do that much admin work that requires batch capability. For example, I only create few users a month, maybe add a new printer every six months, etc. It's another one of those new technologies that this veteran isn't really sure when it's appropriate to use.

I enjoyed programming when I was doing it, but not knowing where to start with PS is very discouraging.

Is there anyone here who's actively using PS? What are you doing with it? Were you able to accomplish those tasks before PS came along? (Debra, feel free to get an article or poll out of those questions!)