[emgee3]

But a benefit might be cross-platform compatibility seeing as some OSes don't come with, say, grep out of the box. While you could use the native tools, there could be some benefit to writing your own to do exactly what you want consistently.

I don't really disagree with you, but just pointing out there is some benefit to writing one's own CLI.

[ufo]

I think its easier to install cygwin than replace all the command line tools I am used to with Javascript equivalents.

[benaiah]

Having installed cygwin, I’m not so sure. :P

[emgee3]

Truth

[nibnib]

Or install ports of enough to get work done. Ag works very well on Windows.

[baldfat]

I am still holding my breath for Windows 10 to start including more and more Unix tools. We finally have ssh to be included with Windows 10 and having tools awk, sed, grep on Windows seems like a logical move for Microsoft EVENTUALLY.

For now I use vagrant all the time when I am on Windows.

[emgee3]

Sure if you want a full set of native tools I won't suggest otherwise. But a full cygwin install is way more invasive than node, and if you just want some specific tools, vorpal might be for you. Or maybe cygwin is. Whatever works for you.

[scardine]

I think GOW (GNU on Windows) is a better alternative to cygwin.

[aikah]

> But a benefit might be cross-platform compatibility seeing as some OSes don't come with, say, grep out of the box

If you have git installed on your machine you have grep ( windows users) and most of linux command tools.