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By definition questions that are on topic are these:

Using and administering official Ubuntu flavors including: Edubuntu, Ubuntu GNOME, Kubuntu, Ubuntu Kylin, Lubuntu, Mythbuntu, Ubuntu Studio, Xubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Touch, and Ubuntu "Snappy" Core.

Running third-party applications on Ubuntu.

Development on Ubuntu. Services provided by Ubuntu and Canonical. Any question not mentioned below or here are great!

Where does GRUB fit in under these requirements ? Technically it's not Running . . . on Ubuntu it loads before the OS itself. In one of Oli's answers, he mentions :

[Questions] how it's installed (and how it boots) are not Ubuntu proper and are off-topic.

And yet, we have GRUB tags and tons of questions related to those. My understanding is that since GRUB comes with Ubuntu by default, it is therefore on topic here. It's also something that can be configured/controlled from Ubuntu. Config files for GRUB are also part of the root filesystem , particularly those in /etc.

NOTE: I'm seeking clarification that draws on at least semi official sources and/or previous meta posts, preferably by our current moderators. In other words, I don't want opinions but facts here

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  • 3
    Technically it is under "using and administering". GRUB options do play a role in administering Ubuntu, and using it alongside other OSes.
    – muru
    Commented Oct 21, 2016 at 5:30
  • @muru OK , what else there is ? Has it been officially mentioned by mods ?
    – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy
    Commented Oct 21, 2016 at 5:31
  • Whatever comes under a reasonable meaning of "using" and "administering". I'd say nobody is going to enumerate all the possibilities for you.
    – muru
    Commented Oct 21, 2016 at 5:32
  • @muru I don't want all possibilities. I want clear definition, and in case of GRUB that definition is very vague
    – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy
    Commented Oct 21, 2016 at 5:34
  • Clear definition of "using" and "administering"? You want a mod to point to X dictionary and say "This is the official meaning of these words for Ask Ubuntu"?
    – muru
    Commented Oct 21, 2016 at 5:35
  • Take, for example: askubuntu.com/questions/819856/…, which is off-topic for me, since Ubuntu is long gone and the problem is between Kali and Windows. But that doesn't mean GRUB is always off-topic for me.
    – muru
    Commented Oct 21, 2016 at 5:38
  • @Muru I know what using and administering means. It's very arguable that even though GRUB comes with Ubuntu installation , it's not under "Running 3rd party apps on Ubuntu" , since it shows up way before actual OS runs. This is exactly same discussion i had with other users in chat today. Don't get me wrong, I believe it's perfectly on topic. But for the sake of others, I want to know where it stands.
    – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy
    Commented Oct 21, 2016 at 5:40
  • 1
    Most GRUB configuration is done by running third party apps on Ubuntu, though, even if GRUB itself isn't. And I'd rather these "others" raise this question if and when it actually becomes a problem.
    – muru
    Commented Oct 21, 2016 at 5:41
  • @muru Hmmm, that's an interesting point there . . . As for "other" users , what difference it makes if I ask this sooner or they later ? Also, not a problem, it's a person seeking clarification - that's all.
    – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy
    Commented Oct 21, 2016 at 5:44
  • Exactly: what difference does it make? So, why ask if there isn't a problem? Is there a flood of GRUB questions without any Ubuntu involvement?
    – muru
    Commented Oct 21, 2016 at 5:50
  • @muru there were a few here and there :)
    – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy
    Commented Oct 21, 2016 at 6:30
  • @Serg btw, if it wasn't for a couple of GRUB questions/solutions here, I wouldn't have been able to use Ubuntu on my laptop. I know I could have found my answers elsewhere, but I'd expect the solution to run Ubuntu on my machine, to be on an Ubuntu site
    – Dan
    Commented Oct 21, 2016 at 9:24
  • 1
    @Dan well, that's the whole point of my question - to ensure these questions 100% belong here and there's no confusion between new and existing users. As well as some users who have been here a while
    – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy
    Commented Oct 21, 2016 at 9:28

1 Answer 1

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Erm...

In one of Oli's answers, he mentions :

[Questions] how it's installed (and how it boots) are not Ubuntu proper and are off-topic.

That's firmly within the context of Crouton, which is a hacked-together way to shim Ubuntu onto a Chromebook.

Grub in the context of Ubuntu is on topic. It's an officially supported application that couldn't be any more a part of Ubuntu if it wanted to be. Why would we ever consider that off-topic?

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  • OK, and just one more question . . .which category it's supposed to belong to ? "Use and administration" as muru suggests or "3rd party apps" ?
    – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy
    Commented Oct 21, 2016 at 9:08
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    Using Ubuntu. It's very hard to use Ubuntu (on a traditional computer) without it.
    – Oli Mod
    Commented Oct 21, 2016 at 9:09
  • 2
    @Serg the way I see it is that it's a piece of software which you install in Ubuntu. True, strictly speaking, it doesn't actually run on Ubuntu but as long as it's something you can apt-get install it seems kinda hard to argue it's off topic.
    – terdon Mod
    Commented Oct 21, 2016 at 16:31
  • 3
    Tongue-in-cheek remark: you can pretty easily use Ubuntu with BURG or rEFInd as well. :P
    – Andrea Lazzarotto
    Commented Oct 23, 2016 at 14:24

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