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Regarding the on-topic policy for programming questions, a few considerations pop into my mind:

• There is no reason whatsoever to create a strict line between the different SE sites. On the contrary, some overlap is extremely useful. It is non-sens furthermore to assume strictly Ubuntu-related programming even exists.

• Note that it is quite weird to allow (for example) text processing, as long as it is awk, grep, sed, wc or alike, then suddenly say if we do the same with (e.g.) python, it is off-topic. Also note that all of these tools aren't specifically Ubuntu at all, not even Linux-specific.

• I learned a lot by writing stuff on Ask Ubuntu; scripts, tools, mini-apps. Some more or less specifically for Ubuntu, but much stuff could and would easily be considered off-topic in a rigid conception. Would I be better off on SO? I doubt that, but it simply wasn't my environment.

In short: If there is no way to relate a question or answer to Ubuntu or programming for- or on Ubuntu, let's close it. But also: let's not too eager to create an artificial line that does not exist in reality, closing off a big potential of the site.

Regarding the on-topic policy for programming questions, a few considerations pop into my mind:

• There is no functional reason whatsoever to create a strict line between the different SE sites. On the contrary, some overlap is extremely useful to have different angles of insight, different styles to approach a subject. It is non-sense furthermore to assume strictly Ubuntu-related programming even exists.
• It seems quite weird to allow (for example) text processing, as long as it is awk, grep, sed, wc or alike, then suddenly say if we do the same with (e.g.) python, it is off-topic. Also note that all of these tools aren't specifically Ubuntu at all, not even Linux-specific. Note also that the vast majority of questions, tagged as "bash" are not about bash at all, but people often assume that anything that happens in the terminal is about bash. And again, if anything is not Ubuntu specific, it would be bash.
• I learned a lot by writing stuff on Ask Ubuntu; scripts, tools, mini-apps. Some more or less specifically for Ubuntu, but much stuff could and would easily be considered off-topic in a rigid conception. Would I be better off on SO? I doubt that, but it simply wasn't my environment.

In short: If there is no way to relate a question or answer to Ubuntu or programming for- or on Ubuntu, let's close it. But also: let's not practice over-management, be too eager to create an artificial line that does not exist in reality, closing off a big potential of the site.

Regarding the on-topic policy for programming questions, a few considerations pop into my mind:

• There is no reason whatsoever to create a strict line between the different SE sites. On the contrary, some overlap is extremely useful. It is non-sens furthermore to assume strictly Ubuntu-related programming even exists.

• Note that it is quite weird to allow (for example) text processing, as long as it is awk, grep, sed, wc or alike, then suddenly say if we do the same with (e.g.) python, it is off-topic. Also note that all of these tools aren't specifically Ubuntu at all, not even Linux-specific.

• On a personal note: I am programming for Ubuntu on a daily base. I the early years, I learned a lot by writing stuff on Ask Ubuntu; scripts, tools, mini-apps. Some more or less specifically for Ubuntu, but much stuff could and would easily be considered off-topic in a rigid conception. Would I be better off on SO? I doubt that, but it simply wasn't my environment.

In short: If there is no way to relate a question or answer to Ubuntu or programming for- or on Ubuntu, let's close it. But also: let's not too eager to create an artificial line that does not exist in reality, closing off a big potential of the site.

Regarding the on-topic policy for programming questions, a few considerations pop into my mind:

• There is no reason whatsoever to create a strict line between the different SE sites. On the contrary, some overlap is extremely useful. It is non-sens furthermore to assume strictly Ubuntu-related programming even exists.

• Note that it is quite weird to allow (for example) text processing, as long as it is awk, grep, sed, wc or alike, then suddenly say if we do the same with (e.g.) python, it is off-topic. Also note that all of these tools aren't specifically Ubuntu at all, not even Linux-specific.

• I learned a lot by writing stuff on Ask Ubuntu; scripts, tools, mini-apps. Some more or less specifically for Ubuntu, but much stuff could and would easily be considered off-topic in a rigid conception. Would I be better off on SO? I doubt that, but it simply wasn't my environment.

In short: If there is no way to relate a question or answer to Ubuntu or programming for- or on Ubuntu, let's close it. But also: let's not too eager to create an artificial line that does not exist in reality, closing off a big potential of the site.

Regarding the on-topic policy for programming questions, a few considerations pop into my mind:

• There is no reason whatsoever to create a strict line between the different SE sites. On the contrary, some overlap is extremely useful. It is non-sens furthermore to assume strictly Ubuntu-related programming even exists.

• Note that it is quite weird to allow (for example) text processing, as long as it is awk, grep, sed, wc or alike, then suddenly say if we do the same with (e.g.) python, it is off-topic. Also note that all of these tools aren't specifically Ubuntu at all, not even Linux-specific.

• On a personal note: I am programming for Ubuntu on a daily base. I the early years, I learned a lot by writing stuff on Ask Ubuntu; scripts, tools, mini-apps. Some more or less specifically for Ubuntu, but much stuff could and would easily be considered off-topic in a rigid conception. Would I be better off on SO? I doubt that, but it simply wasn't my environment.

In short: If there is no way to relate a question to Ubuntu or programming for- or on Ubuntu, let's close it. But also: let's not too eager to create an artificial line that does not exist in reality, closing off a big potential of the site.

Regarding the on-topic policy for programming questions, a few considerations pop into my mind:

• There is no reason whatsoever to create a strict line between the different SE sites. On the contrary, some overlap is extremely useful. It is non-sens furthermore to assume strictly Ubuntu-related programming even exists.

• Note that it is quite weird to allow (for example) text processing, as long as it is awk, grep, sed, wc or alike, then suddenly say if we do the same with (e.g.) python, it is off-topic. Also note that all of these tools aren't specifically Ubuntu at all, not even Linux-specific.

• On a personal note: I am programming for Ubuntu on a daily base. I the early years, I learned a lot by writing stuff on Ask Ubuntu; scripts, tools, mini-apps. Some more or less specifically for Ubuntu, but much stuff could and would easily be considered off-topic in a rigid conception. Would I be better off on SO? I doubt that, but it simply wasn't my environment.

In short: If there is no way to relate a question or answer to Ubuntu or programming for- or on Ubuntu, let's close it. But also: let's not too eager to create an artificial line that does not exist in reality, closing off a big potential of the site.