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I have just answered a question here which related to what version of the Linux kernel would work with a MBP. The question was tagged as Dual-Boot and Unix.

The question was about dual-booting with (any) Linux distro and the answer was 2016 and later MBP are supported after version 5.3 of the Linux kernel.

I tried to correct the tag to Linux but can't. I enter "Linux" and get this:

Linux

I'm not sure I agree with the description of the Unix tag but in any case it certainly has nothing to do with running Linux on a mac.

Other Unix tagged questions seem to be a mix of other questions about dual-booting Linux and random questions where the Unix tag adds nothing.

Considering there are tags for all versions of Windows (including a generic one) and there are plenty of questions about running Linux on mac would it not make sense to have a Linux tag as Unixis not really applicable in this case.

A similar question was asked previously in meta 3 yeas ago Linux tag = Unix but perhaps it needs raising again.

If it is agreed how would one go about actually implementing it?

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Since this is a pre-existing synonym, we would need to form a team to review the questions tagged unix and perhaps re-tag those. That effort would be a considerable amount of work.

Can you make an answer here laying out why we would tag a question as belonging to a build of linux (or if we need tags for each linux build / flavor / distribution) as opposed to having one tag to cover operating systems that are unix based.

That way people can vote up or vote down the specific implementations. I probably will answer one answer saying - "let's keep all the following OS under the unix tag here" so that people that prefer that can vote for that and don't have to down vote your question so let's elect the best option and not just say - no - we won't change it.

The implementation will depend on the design, so let's get a consensus on wha the design / scope of each proposed tag looks like and then move forward with timing based on what design or scope is best liked.

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  • I wasn't suggesting separate tags - just a general one that could be used for running any distro on a mac. The current Unix tag includes questions about macOS Unix executables, terminal commands etc intermingled with dual-booting (mostly) Linux. Now one could argue there could be people dual-booting other OS's (indeed there are the tags for bsd and freebsd linked to Unix and android which isn't) but these are marginal cases. I think it would be good to separate "running another OS on mac" from whatever else is dumped under the Unix tag as "running Windows on mac" is.
    – lx07
    Commented Oct 4, 2019 at 22:07
  • Perhaps changing the description of the existing Unix tag to be "For questions about running 'unix-like' operating systems on mac" would be easier. It would solve the issue and it's other current uses are covered by other tags - in most cases it would just involve deleting the Unix tag from such questions.
    – lx07
    Commented Oct 4, 2019 at 22:17
  • We have a Linux tag and it’s a synonym of Unix. So to make a change we need to address how they will differ in a meaningful manner. I appreciate you raising the discussion, just not sure I support it yet without some more details
    – bmike Mod
    Commented Oct 5, 2019 at 0:27
  • @lx07 We have >800 questions tagged with unix, and as you noticed the term is used both for non-macOS OSes (Linux, BSD etc) and for unix-like features within macOS. I agree that a restructuring would help though, assuming we get a good set of new definitions and a team of volunteers to clean up existing use.
    – nohillside Mod
    Commented Oct 5, 2019 at 7:29
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    @lx07 Questions about android usually are about either syncing an Android phone to macOS or about developing for Android devices. In both cases, the unix-like aspects of Android aren't really important, so a non-related tag is fine. I would even go so far and say that any question which is tagged both android and unix is most probably off-topic.
    – nohillside Mod
    Commented Oct 5, 2019 at 7:31
  • @nohillside - I would be willing to go through all the Unix questions and remove the tag if the question didn't refer to running Linux/BSD etc on a mac. It would then just require someone (with more rep) to change the tag description to something like "For questions related to Unix like operating systems including Linux, BSD, FreeBSD etc' similar to the Windows tags. However I am new here and if this suggestion isn't appropriate I certainly don't want to push it - I just thought it might make it easier for people who ran other OS`s to find relevant questions to answer.
    – lx07
    Commented Oct 5, 2019 at 11:08
  • @lx07 As bmike mentioned above: please post an answer here with a proposal for the wording of the revised tag (both the short and the long version) so the community can give feedback on it.
    – nohillside Mod
    Commented Oct 5, 2019 at 12:47
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    @lx07 Until that proposal is in an answer that gets some significant votes, we’ll probably hold off waiting for consensus. No need to take any further action here or on the other question. It’s not about liking it, but getting a post voted enough that it’s clear there’s consensus.
    – bmike Mod
    Commented Oct 7, 2019 at 19:22
  • Hope you're aware of the new featured question, @lx07
    – anki
    Commented Oct 16, 2019 at 0:06
  • @ankii - I saw it - and linked to it in my question actually. I'm not really sure any more what is the best solution but probably adding a Linux tag as I initially proposed here isn't the way forward.
    – lx07
    Commented Oct 16, 2019 at 11:07
  • @lx07 Post proposed tag descriptions there and make them CW.
    – anki
    Commented Oct 16, 2019 at 12:53

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