fping is a handy ping alternative, that allows specifying multiple hosts and other handy flags like timeout! https://fping.sourceforge.net/
Related Posts
The most common selling point I hear for Nix is having a list of all the packages you need.
On a traditional Linux distro, I just install things and forget about them. A curated, commented list would certainly be handy when I have a new system.
It is remarkably hard to escape command line arguments safely on Windows, and the standard libraries of multiple languages have needed patching: https://flatt.tech/research/posts/batbadbut-you-cant-securely-execute-commands-on-windows/
I've been really enjoying paru as a pacman substitute on Arch Linux: https://github.com/Morganamilo/paru
It allows you to update both normal and AUR packages in one go, which is super convenient. It also shows you PKGBUILD files, so there's still a human audit step for AUR.