PowerShell Core 6.0

 PowerShell Core 6.0 is a new edition of PowerShell that built on .NET Core and is cross-platform (Windows, macOS, and Linux), open-source, and built for heterogeneous environments and the hybrid cloud.

 PowerShell Core is completely side-by-side with Windows PowerShell. Whether it’s installed via an MSI or installed portably from the ZIP package, Windows PowerShell installation is not affected by PowerShell Core.

Difference between Windows PowerShell and PowerShell Core

Windows PowerShell

• Windows PowerShell is the edition of PowerShell built on top of .NET Framework
•  (sometimes referred to as “FullCLR”):
• This is the PowerShell that has been in widespread use for the last ~10 years.
• Because of it’s dependency on the .NET Framework, Windows PowerShell is only available on Windows (hence the name).
• The released versions of Windows PowerShell include 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0, and 5.1.
• Windows PowerShell is available as a built-in component in Windows client and Windows Server.
• Windows PowerShell is launched as powershell.exe.
• On Windows PowerShell 5.0/5.1, $PSVersionTable.PSEdition is set to Desktop.
• Any usage of .NET-based functionality (e.g. C# cmdlets, Add-Type, and the invocation of static .NET Methods), relies on the .NET Framework runtime. This means Windows PowerShell’s .NET usage is limited to the functionality exposed by the .NET Framework and .NET Standard.
• Continues to be supported via critical bug fixes in the newest releases of Windows and Windows Server

PowerShell Core

• PowerShell Core is the edition of PowerShell built on top of .NET Core
• (sometimes simplified to “CoreCLR”).
• PowerShell Core is cross-platform, available on Windows, macOS, and Linux, thanks to the cross-platform nature of .NET Core.
• PowerShell Core is launched as pwsh.exe on Windows and pwsh on macOS and Linux
• On PowerShell Core, $PSVersionTable.PSEdition is set to Core.
• Note: while PowerShell Core 6.0 is cross-platform, there is also a PowerShell Core 5.0/5.1 released exclusively as part of Microsoft Nano Server.
• Any usage of .NET-based functionality (e.g. C# cmdlets, Add-Type, and the invocation of static .NET Methods), relies on the .NET Core runtime. This means PowerShell Core is limited to the functionality exposed by .NET Core and .NET Standard.

 PowerShell Core 6.0 Supported Platforms

PowerShell Core is officially supported on the following platforms:

• Windows 7, 8.1, and 10
• Windows Server 2008 R2, 2012 R2, 2016
• Windows Server Semi-Annual Channel
• Ubuntu 14.04, 16.04, and 17.04
• Debian 8.7+, and 9
• CentOS 7
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
• OpenSUSE 42.2
• Fedora 25, 26
• macOS 10.12+

Other contributed packages for the following platforms, but they are not officially supported:

• Arch Linux
• Kali Linux
• AppImage (works on multiple Linux platforms)

Experimental (unsupported) releases for the following platforms:

• Windows on ARM32/ARM64

 PowerShell Core 6.0 Built-in Modules

The  “built-in” modules as part of PowerShell Core:

• CimCmdlets
• Microsoft.PowerShell.Archive
• Microsoft.PowerShell.Diagnostics
• Microsoft.PowerShell.Host
• Microsoft.PowerShell.Management
• Microsoft.PowerShell.Security
• Microsoft.PowerShell.Utility
• Microsoft.WSMan.Management
• PackageManagement
• PowerShellGet
• PSDesiredStateConfiguration
• PSDiagnostics
• PSReadLine