Another good thing about learning UNIX (or using Linux) is the ability to write code snippets that could automate daily chores (you can do in Windows too, but I am not going to speak about it here).
Some of the code I enjoyed writing and using is, code to remember directory paths I visited (I visit lot of them, and it is a pain to type lengthy ones). A wrapper for "ssh" to remember hosts and list them (again I had to visit bunch of them daily, and pain to type fully qualified host names), just like PuTTy-saved sessions.
These tools really boost the productivity and joy to use.
I agree with you, having the ability to script everyday tasks is awesome, though however in the case of the ssh wrapper it might be a little overkill, given that you can achieve the same (and more) with a ssh_config file [1] [2]. I would particularly recommend the ControlMaster option.
Some of the code I enjoyed writing and using is, code to remember directory paths I visited (I visit lot of them, and it is a pain to type lengthy ones). A wrapper for "ssh" to remember hosts and list them (again I had to visit bunch of them daily, and pain to type fully qualified host names), just like PuTTy-saved sessions.
These tools really boost the productivity and joy to use.