How can I start understanding Windows the same way I understand Linux-based systems?
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So I've been working professionally with Linux-based systems for a few years, and while I'm not the expert I would like to be, I have got a pretty good feeling for the way those systems work. You have the bootloader, the initramfs, the boot procedure, systemd, PID 1, you can check the logs, you have all those little things that make the system work. Everything is a file, you have file permissions and selinux contexts, you have networkmanager, systemd units, you have (system) users, some just for some services, it's all dandy.. if I have a problem with a program I can usually debug it, check its logs, and get it to run.
Now for work I suddenly need to do lots of administration of Windows systems, Win11 and server, and troubleshoot deep, weird issues..
And I've started reading up on it, trying to use PowerShell as much as I can, but I'm just not getting the same high level overview feeling of understanding of how the system works, of how the parts work together. Or even what parts there are, and what they do.
(Especially within an Azure context.)
Books on Windows tend to be very surface level, just instructions on what menus to click through to get a working configuration.
But what's going on underneath the hood? What do I do when I get a weird VPN issue? I mean, there's Get-EventLog to check for things in the logs, but.. nothing feels connected.
Do you know what I mean?
(Also, how cumbersome is PowerShell? No proper paging like with less in bash, I mean, you can't go back a page, not with windows more or that powershell pager command, and you have to type sooo many words.. and yeah, everything is an object, and I see how that can be a nice idea, but man, does that force you to select properties of those objects like crazy. Is this really a good thing, once you have it figured out?)
Are there one-to-one equivalents between Windows and Linux distros that could help me understand? Or is there a really good book that spells it all out, that sets me on a path where I can someday debug ANY issue and understand what I am seeing and doing?
..and I mean, where do I even start out debugging and understanding things like Entra ID issues in Windows365 machines, and hybrid Azure domains.. the Microsoft help usually just seems to be steps on how to configure the stuff, but not understanding how it works..
Sorry, this is all over the place, but I'm just lost right now
️ maybe someone has felt those same things before and has something wise to tell me? -
So I've been working professionally with Linux-based systems for a few years, and while I'm not the expert I would like to be, I have got a pretty good feeling for the way those systems work. You have the bootloader, the initramfs, the boot procedure, systemd, PID 1, you can check the logs, you have all those little things that make the system work. Everything is a file, you have file permissions and selinux contexts, you have networkmanager, systemd units, you have (system) users, some just for some services, it's all dandy.. if I have a problem with a program I can usually debug it, check its logs, and get it to run.
Now for work I suddenly need to do lots of administration of Windows systems, Win11 and server, and troubleshoot deep, weird issues..
And I've started reading up on it, trying to use PowerShell as much as I can, but I'm just not getting the same high level overview feeling of understanding of how the system works, of how the parts work together. Or even what parts there are, and what they do.
(Especially within an Azure context.)
Books on Windows tend to be very surface level, just instructions on what menus to click through to get a working configuration.
But what's going on underneath the hood? What do I do when I get a weird VPN issue? I mean, there's Get-EventLog to check for things in the logs, but.. nothing feels connected.
Do you know what I mean?
(Also, how cumbersome is PowerShell? No proper paging like with less in bash, I mean, you can't go back a page, not with windows more or that powershell pager command, and you have to type sooo many words.. and yeah, everything is an object, and I see how that can be a nice idea, but man, does that force you to select properties of those objects like crazy. Is this really a good thing, once you have it figured out?)
Are there one-to-one equivalents between Windows and Linux distros that could help me understand? Or is there a really good book that spells it all out, that sets me on a path where I can someday debug ANY issue and understand what I am seeing and doing?
..and I mean, where do I even start out debugging and understanding things like Entra ID issues in Windows365 machines, and hybrid Azure domains.. the Microsoft help usually just seems to be steps on how to configure the stuff, but not understanding how it works..
Sorry, this is all over the place, but I'm just lost right now
️ maybe someone has felt those same things before and has something wise to tell me?So, linux was designed cohesively. It has different mostly-modular parts, because its core design and being based on the incredibly slow crawl on unix allowed for that.
You can get a high level overview, because it's develoent sort of requires that, and tge people who make it value that transparency.
It's done when it's done and does new things when someone needs it to do new things. Compatibility is a virtue, and the design philosophy didnt really have many conflicts. The system is for the user (or administrator).
It has roots in universities and the deeper you go, the more prestigious the names signed next to each line of code are. If you dig down deep enough, you can probably find atlas' shoulders, alan turing's left hand, ada lovelace's knees, al kwarizimi's toenails.
Windows was originally slapped together by a teenager in his garage. For several years an actual slogan for the design team was "windows isn't done 'til lotus[notes] won't run". Compatibility was frequently cut. On purpose. For profits.
Because of the way the design worked, and the supremely capitalist design philosophy, nobody but the less-of-a-sex-criminal bill got a full high level view of the thing. And that was before 95. Features, selling points, shit to out on the box. There are updates, yes, but editions are discrete, svheduled, and ship with specific features that must be printed on the box at any cost.
At about the turn of the century, with fifteen years and ten superfund sites of tech debt, they redesigned the whole system's low level pieces. Except not really; only kind of some of them. But enough that it broke a shit ton of compatibility and massively improved stability.
Nobody working on it sees the whole system. They see what they're assigned. Even if you were to wholly understand it, that knowledge would be obsolete and mostly useless within five years.
You literally can't understand it as well as linux. It doesn't make sense. It isnt designed rationally. It's frequently designed malevolently. Even the people who mqke it barely know what they're working on. Don't try.