Jack Douglas
It has been suggested [elsewhere](/meta?q=530#a582) to make the scope pretty broad:
> * All distributions, both Linux, BSD, and old fashioned Unix. I would even go so far as to say that other Open Source kernels and platforms should be included when they crop up (e.g. [Haiku](https://www.haiku-os.org/) or [Plan 9](https://9p.io/plan9/)).
> * All related OSS user space tool sets such as GNU tools.
> * All desktop environments that are not specific to non-\*nix platforms.
> * All shells that are not specific to another platform (no PowerShell).
Is that the way we want to go? Where will we draw the line exactly?
Top Answer
PeterVandivier
## Keep it broad
As a U&L beginner, I find it a little difficult to contribute what _should_ or _should not_ be "in-scope" by virtue of the fact that I don't know what things exist to exclude or include.
For the near future though, I think the community is likely to be small enough and disciplined enough to keep the questions asked here **well-constructed**. For this reason, I don't think creating a list of "off-topic" items is optimal.
For example: it's en vogue among the folks I work with to poo-poo powershell on nix (see also: here); but I use it a lot in my day-to-day on both MacOS & Centos. For this usage, I don't have a whole lot I'd ask here instead of [the dedicated Powershell community][1] I participate in; but I can see needing a place to ask about configuring a FreeBSD installation to use `pwsh` when that becomes an option. If both FreeBSD & powershell are deemed strictly off-topic on this U&L network then I can easily see why that would be a valid choice; but I will - as they say - [has a sad][2].
If in the future sub-network fragmentation is deemed to be appropriate, then perhaps a tag sweep could be done to migrate away content like what I'm likely to generate en masse; but for now I vote enthusiastically to keep the scope broad & inclusive and trust the community to keep our content suitably tidy.
[1]: https://powershell.slack.com
[2]: http://m.quickmeme.com/img/bd/bdc0aa00e03dd5aea3e9955d55db98e72404514d1b930b8a7746f5b2014a7d39.jpg
Answer #2
holmanb
the users that I expect to see in this community come in many shapes and sizes:
- server / network admins
- software / hardware developers
- desktop users
- smartphone users (android/postmarket/etc)
- "makers" (Raspberry Pi/beaglebone/etc)
this list of potential users will likely bring with them a wide range of questions, from [containers](docker.com) and [orchestration](kubernetes.io) to [desktops](kde.org) and [\*nix specific applications](https://wiki.gnome.org/Apps/Shotwell), to [configuring network settings](
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Network_configuration/Wireless) and using system [text editors](https://www.vim.org/) and administering systems using scripting languages ([general purpose](https://www.python.org) or [shell](
https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/manual/html_node/What-is-Bash_003f.html)).
I think that all of the above topics have a place in this community currently.
The challenging part will be saying "topic X belong here". Saying that a topic doesn't belong in a community is to say that either 1. topic X doesn't currently belong on this site, or 2. topic X belongs in a different community. To avoid fragmenting the community too much too soon, I would err on the side of inclusion until sufficient user base is achieved.