I am of course talking about What advantages does Ubuntu have over Windows as an environment for programming?What advantages does Ubuntu have over Windows as an environment for programming?
It's picking up a number of meta comments (and allegations) so I thought it better to transfer some of that to Meta where we can talk about it without bombing what I consider a valid question.
Before we go any further, let me head off the "But Oli, you've got a very vested rep interest in that question"... The phrase "a drop in the ocean" couldn't seem more applicable to me. The reason I answered it in the first place is because I think it's a good question. The current main reasons I like it are:
- It's furiously popular. 2576 views in 22 hours.
- Its subject matter is great advertising for Ubuntu.
- It's attracting people with real experience. We've got people coming in from other SE sites to help out here.
- It is about Ubuntu, it is about development and it can be answered satisfactorily without bending to plain old mud-slinging or obviously one-sided views.
It was closed as being too opinionated which I objected to because it was pulling in so much real world experience, explicitly contrary to that particular reason. I don't deny there is opinion in some of the answers but that's not enough. There are also some concerns about its general on-topicness which I have attempted to fix with a very simple edit.
I've just deleted the following meta-comment from BlueRaja - Danny PflughoeftBlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft:
This question is incredibly off-topic for a number of reasons; the only reason it's still open is because a moderator likes how it agrees with his OS-political-opinions. That, plus the fact that he deleted all the highly-upvoted comments explaining why it's off-topic, is just another reason we need more checks-and-balances to prevent moderator abuse.
I'm deleting some comments (like the above) because they're completely meta. I'm trying to address or fix them and move on. In this case I hope this question itself answers most of what Danny has to say...
If you agree with Danny or have another issue with me or another moderator, please take it up with the other moderators on Meta (I can't hide a question from them) or the Stack Exchange team via the contact link at the bottom of every page.
Otherwise use this post to rage on about the validity of the original post.