[flyinghamster]

Another key issue: the concept of open source barely existed. Sure, you got a copy of the source code used to SYSGEN your RT-11 or RSTS/E system, but it had comments removed and was not for redistribution. In the end, the closest in feel to the old DEC world today would be the traditional Windows command line (not PowerShell).

The rise of GNU and the general open source movement was a reaction to the rug-pull when access to Unix source was restricted, and that gave us Linux (MINIX wasn't initially open source, but could be put into a state that made Linux possible).

The Unix paradigm stuck with us, IMO, because Unix (and later Linux and BSDs) have been ported to so many vastly different architectures. So many other operating systems have never moved beyond (and often died with) their initial platforms.

[Aloha]

Thats not really fair to DCL - cmd is much more.. lacking in facilities than DCL is. Nor is it fair to DCL as an interactive environment either.

[flyinghamster]

True enough. CP/M and MS-DOS (which give us the old-school Windows command shell) predate DCL, though; it was a fairly late addition to the PDP-11 operating systems, after it was rolled out in VMS. RSTS/E up to version 8 logged users into BASIC by default, while version 9 made DCL the default run-time system.

[Aloha]

DCL to my eyes at least clearly inherited some ideas from TOPS-20.

cmd for all of its braindead nature is surprisingly usable for complex tasks though. I have to use it often, tbh.