Regarding that question I'm meddling with

Question

I am of course talking about 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 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.

Answer 1

Levelled opinion from experience or cited fact is both valuable and welcome.

I spew my opinions all over this site and it's usually warmly appreciated. That's because my opinions, when I give them, come from my experience. Why am I not tripping over "primarily opinion-based" more often? Let's look at the reason. Emphasis mine.

Many good questions generate some degree of opinion based on expert experience, but answers to this question will tend to be almost entirely based on opinions, rather than facts, references, or specific expertise.

Many of the opinions being exchanged in this question are those of programmers who have used both Ubuntu and Windows and are well pitched to offer their professional opinion. There are posts and comments both against and in favour of Windows. People are giving reasons. Things have an unexpected level of balance (given where we are). People are being objective about their subjectivity.

What's best is we have levels of quality where the voting helps pick the better answers out from the less good. The system is working. I know there's been some concern about ramble in the comments here but I'd be happy with a hundred answers if they all had value and in that vein we can vote to prune out the weaker answers.

We should reserve close-opinion for discussions like "What should I set my wallpaper to?". No expertise will ever help there, nor will it help another user. It's a fishing expedition in a barren lake.

Also see: http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2010/09/good-subjective-bad-subjective/

Answer 2

Only specific questions require specific expertise

This is not a specific question and thus should be closed.

I think you would have closed the question had you not answered it yourself. Quite frankly, the only reason such a vague question is open is because you are the one protecting it.

The OP should have been forced to make his question more specific, about a specific language, a specific type of development, the availability of certain software or of didactic resources, whatever. But not just 'why use ubuntu for programming?'

Otherwise expect the following type of questions,

• 'What advantages does Ubuntu have as an environment for hacking?'
• 'What advantages does Ubuntu have as an environment for writing?'
• 'What advantages does Ubuntu have as an environment for learning about computers?'
• ...

Sure, these will be high-traffic questions, but they corrupt the system, are outdated quite fast, and can never be complete. If a question cannot be completely answered, it is not sufficiently specific!

This is the type of question that will get a "this question is here for historical reasons" tag. This question should have been on the forum, not the QA site.

I would love to see another mod close the question. You have gained +650 rep from that question, so I personally find you should have asked another mod to judge this question and clean it up when needed. There's plenty of excellent mods or trusted users (like Jorge on the present page) that would have given you an honest opinion.