Question: I am unsure of where I should ask about Linux or things like `sed`, `awk`, and `grep`. Is Stack Overflow not the place and should I only limit those questions to Ask Ubuntu? [This question on Meta Stack Overflow](https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/315556/why-are-there-so-many-non-programming-questions-on-stack-overflow) is about Linux stuff as non programming questions, and it made me confused on whether or not I should use Stack Overflow for these questions.

Answer: 
My understanding of the scope of Stack Overflow is limited, so I hope people will comment or edit to correct me.

There is significant overlap in scope (on-topicness) between various Stack Exchange sites, including Stack Overflow and Ask Ubuntu, and this is not considered a problem. The same question may be on topic on Stack Overflow and on Ask Ubuntu.

My understanding is that on Stack Overflow, anything **about** writing code is on topic. The question should be actually *about* writing code, and not just related to writing code. See [the Stack Overflow on-topic page](https://stackoverflow.com/help/on-topic) for a detailed description.

On Ask Ubuntu, questions about shell scripting or text processing are on topic.

Other questions about/related to writing code are on topic **if and only if** they are somehow related to the operating system. For example "how do I write a Hello World program in Python?" is off topic on Ask Ubuntu, but questions about installing software and setting up your environment for writing code, or about problems writing code that occur because of the environment, are on topic on Ask Ubuntu (assuming you are using Ubuntu of course). Oh, also, questions about developing software **for** Ubuntu are always on topic.

So, you can ask questions about using `sed` `grep` and `awk` on either Stack Overflow or Ask Ubuntu, because text processing is a scope overlap area.
Questions about Linux and things like `sed`, `awk` or `grep` are usually good candidates for the *[Unix & Linux](https://unix.stackexchange.com/)* site.