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Just wrote a question with an answer recently and I'm not understanding why it was closed with the claim

We don’t allow questions about general computing hardware and software on Stack Overflow.

Considering

This is the question I'm talking about - Docker WSL 2 installation is incomplete (note that while the title suggests I'm installing Docker, that's not true... Docker was already installed and working... what I've done was update the version (following the normal update procedure), then when I wanted to use it started to get this problem). Would appreciate an explanation.

Update

Within a short period of time (2 months), this question has 14 upvotes, the answer 21 upvotes and more than 10k views. It seems as if users disagree with the decision to close this question.

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    Because there exists another SE site specialized on "general computing hardware and software" questions? (SuperUser) where you should ask this may be? Also I'd not consider Docker as a programming tool.
    – πάντα ῥεῖ
    Commented Sep 11, 2020 at 13:41
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    I don't understand the term "general" there @πάνταῥεῖ (what makes this general considering it was about a particular problem)
    – Tiago Peres
    Commented Sep 11, 2020 at 13:43
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    It's general computing.
    – πάντα ῥεῖ
    Commented Sep 11, 2020 at 13:46
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    reasonably certain installation falls under general computing rather than the software used by programmers exception
    – Zoe - Save the data dump Mod
    Commented Sep 11, 2020 at 13:50
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    A question about using docker in the context of a programming task is fine. The linked question is simply about installing Docker on Windows. While Docker generally used as in development contexts, I don't think that alone makes the question on-topic here. I'm sure others will disagree. Let the VTC/VTR wars begin.
    – yivi
    Commented Sep 11, 2020 at 13:50
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    StackOverflow goes around coding and implementation issues, your question it not related to code or implementing something at all (at least until the point you explained in your answer). Your question just tasks about installation process, an area which SO does not have to do with. It'd be different (just to give you an example) If you installed docker, and then when running a command it fails to build your container (even when following recommended guidelines) that question would be allowed here as your issue does not go around installation but rather around implementation.
    – jecarfor
    Commented Sep 11, 2020 at 13:52
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    Should I delete this question too?
    – Tiago Peres
    Commented Sep 11, 2020 at 14:53
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    Docker isn't used primarily by 'general computer users', it's used almost exclusively by programmers and SREs.
    – George Stocker
    Commented Sep 11, 2020 at 14:58
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    @George There's plenty of software that's distributed as a docker image. I've yet to use docker as a programmer, but have used it multiple times (for example, to quickly set up a remote work environment when COVID first hit). My personal experiences don't align with your claim. Do you have a source on it?
    – Erik A
    Commented Sep 11, 2020 at 15:05
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    @Tiago I'd leave this question here, the downvotes don't affect you, and while it's somewhat of a common question (there are multiple about tools that are used often but not exclusively by programmers), it's fine to have this one on Docker specifically, unless there's a duplicate that already discusses questions about general use of Docker.
    – Erik A
    Commented Sep 11, 2020 at 15:09
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    @GeorgeStocker I don't see any demographics on Docker users there, am I missing something?
    – Erik A
    Commented Sep 11, 2020 at 15:15
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    You have now created a situation where your question and answer was submitted to multiple communities
    – Security Hound
    Commented Sep 12, 2020 at 22:49
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    "this question has 14 upvotes, the answer 21 upvotes – It seems as if users disagree with the decision to close this question." People can vote to re-open if they disagree with closing. Off-topic content can very well get upvotes if it is helpful to people; being helpful does not make in on-topic, however.
    – MisterMiyagi
    Commented Nov 17, 2020 at 12:36
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    That the question is fully duplicated (and remains open) on SU is not a great argument for reopening or keeping the one in SO around.
    – yivi
    Commented Nov 17, 2020 at 12:41
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    And yet the question is still posted in both sites, is open over there and closed here.
    – yivi
    Commented Nov 17, 2020 at 12:44

2 Answers 2

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"How do I get Docker running" is a question in the same vein of "how do I get my IDE installed" or "how do I get my programming tools installed".

That is, it's not a sexy question, but it's a valid programming question that programmers have to ask and/or deal with on a daily basis.

Closing it with the assumption that these kinds of things are "general software" is explicitly incorrect.

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  • Some users even go further to the point of wanting to delete the question...
    – Tiago Peres
    Commented Nov 17, 2020 at 16:11
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    @TiagoMartinsPeres李大仁 deletion is a logical next step to closure. It's quite literally the goal of closure.
    – Kevin B
    Commented Nov 17, 2020 at 17:21
  • I really cannot understand why people would disagree with such a sensible answer. It isn't less ambiguous than the accepted answer IMHO.
    – customcommander
    Commented Nov 17, 2020 at 18:21
  • @customcommander I do not think that "How do I get Docker running" is a programming question, nor that questions become on-topic just because programmers face them every day. The question would be exactly the same when asked outside of a programming context.
    – MisterMiyagi
    Commented Nov 17, 2020 at 18:55
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    @MisterMiyagi: Yet I don't see a justification to call it a "generic" computer problem. In spite of the fact that the question is not bound to just engineers, Stack Overflow explicitly makes tools related to software development on task. Installing Docker as a local service would, in my mind, qualify as that.
    – Makoto
    Commented Nov 17, 2020 at 20:12
  • @MisterMiyagi The question may be formulated in the same way but depending on the audience the answer is unlikely going to be the same. When a technology has a big engineering footprint, it is to be expected that people would want to ask an engineering audience so as to increase the likelihood of a relevant answer. Putting Docker in the same category as MS Word as "general software" is simply a disservice to the community.
    – customcommander
    Commented Nov 17, 2020 at 20:13
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    Furthermore, deleting it robs everyone of value. We can't even migrate it to the "right" place if it's removed from the site.
    – Makoto
    Commented Nov 17, 2020 at 20:13
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    Your second paragraph got you an upvote :). On a more serious note, I think people closing questions asking about issues installing programming tools is innapropriate. Like how do you start coding without an IDE? If I had an issue installing pycharm, and I asked it here, and it got closed, that would be innapropriate because ide questions can be on-topic here. If I could, I would vote to reopen the question.
    – 10 Rep
    Commented Nov 17, 2020 at 20:13
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    @Makoto The question is already on SuperUser. Deleting it on Stack Overflow does not rob everyone of value, nor does it prevent migration.
    – MisterMiyagi
    Commented Nov 17, 2020 at 20:18
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    @MisterMiyagi: Well, that's a relief. It's just a shame that the OP felt compelled to cross-post the question (something we explicitly discourage) just so that they could satisfy the impression of it being either poorly received here on Stack Overflow (it wasn't), or it being off-topic on Stack Overflow (it isn't). Besides, which site on Google gets the most traffic or the most hits? Fewer people would see this answer as opposed to a migration which would've preserved the path for the question all the way to Super User.
    – Makoto
    Commented Nov 17, 2020 at 21:36
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Docker isn't strictly a programming tool, in the way that git or javac might be. There are a lot of uses for it for just running a prepackaged application, or in a cluster or deployment context. There is also a lot of overlap with other sites (Unix & Linux, Ask Ubuntu, DevOps).

To me that makes questions about just installing Docker more like questions about installing Chrome, and less like questions about installing the JDK. This class of question isn't programming-oriented, and of the set of standard close reasons, "general computing hardware and software" is the most appropriate.

The SO Docker questions tend to split into a couple of categories. Many of the questions that get asked aren't really programming-related:

  • "I found this program on GitHub and it has a docker run command in its README; how do I run it?"
  • "I want to run Jupyter in Docker, how do I make it save my notebooks across a restart?"
  • "How do I configure my multi-node Docker Swarm cluster?"

Docker questions that are on topic tend to actually involve application source code and developer-oriented tasks, and read more like:

  • "How do I replace the code in my Docker image with what I see in my IDE, so that Docker emulates a local-development environment?"
  • "When I run this code in my local environment, I get result X, but when I run it with this Dockerfile, I get result Y instead."
  • "When I compile this application in this Dockerfile, I get a link error; how do I make it compile successfully?"
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  • David Maze, based in your shared experience and the community desire, I went on trying to delete the post from StackOverflow but I'm not allowed. So, I just voted to close it.
    – Tiago Peres
    Commented Sep 15, 2020 at 13:35
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    The difference between what makes an on topic Docker question and what doesn't is vague at best and arbitrary at worse (no offence intended here). Git isn't a programming tool per se (You can't even read anything related to programming on the front page git-scm.com). It is popular amongst developers but one can use Git to manage and version a book or a research paper. Yet nobody would argue that Git doesn't have a home in Stack Overflow. My £0.02.
    – customcommander
    Commented Nov 17, 2020 at 18:18
  • @customcommander For Git I would argue that the similar division between installation issues and using it for version control, literally for which it was designed. Now source control is very close to programming. For any topic here other than direct coding questions there will be a grey area; docker isn't special in that sense. We should also consider that it is probably best for installation specific questions to be asked on Super User instead of Stack Overflow because askers would get better answers there.
    – Maarten Bodewes
    Commented May 9, 2022 at 13:43

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