Task Submission For: Interview a GNOME User
INTERVIEW WITH A GNOME USER
Interviewer: Mercy Kalu. Interviewee: Daniel Mbazue. Interviwee Discipline: Backend Software Engineer and Solidity Blockchain Developer. Distro Platform: Ubuntu 23.10
INTRODUCTION
Daniel Mbazue is a Nigerian based Software Engineer who major in backend software Engineer using python and JavaScript and also a Blockchain Developer who uses solidity with a Rust based tool called Foundry for testing his solidity code. He has been using Ubuntu for 3years and actively using GNOME 45 for 3month now. The major reason why Daniel uses Ubuntu is primarily for his blockchain development as installing some packages on windows was tedious, heavy and time consuming. Most of Daniel’s installations requires he use a Linux base system and Ubuntu was his best choice with the GNOME desktop since he needed it for blockchain development using Solidity and Rust.
Before the interview started Daniel was informed that the interview is for research purpose towards improvement of GNOME and I also ensured Daniel was aware the section is being recorded to which he gave his consent.
POSITIVE FINDINGS
Daniel complimented the sleekness of the GNOME Desktop Environment which enables him use dark screen very easily. Due to an eye issue, Daniel prefers everything dark mode and also, the platform does not come with too many icons like windows where the desktop comes with different icons on first installation. He appreciate the fact that everything is just really simple and also fast to use. He feels the user interface looks very nice.
So far, Daniels feels good using the GNOME platform and thinks everything is good about the GNOME Desktop Environment and does not have any particular feature he will like to be replaced.
NEGATIVE FINDINGS
Daniel have the following challenges he will love GNOME take consideration of. He was able to share his screen to show couple of errors he encounter very often while using the GNOME Desktop Environment.
1. Daniel uses chromium as his primary browser which he often share with his brother. His chromium worked fine initially but after his brother logged into his account on Daniels desktop, he observed that he was no longer able to log in into his own account. The platform automatically shuts him off and doesn’t come on. Therefore, Daniels's chromium browser works on one user account and doesn’t work on another account. Watch the clip attached below as Daniel showcase the error he encountered while trying to switch from one user to another:
ISSUE 1
2. Another issue Daniel encountered is that while using the GNOME Desktop, he tried to install python 3 packages, his device freezes before automatically going off and takes a lot of time to recover. And when the desktop comes back up everything on his GNOME desktop environment wipes off except the terminal (TTY Terminal). Daniel could not show a demo of the issue on the call as he doesn’t want the same issue automatically turning off his device which could have end the interview. Attached below is a video explanation of the issue the user encountered:
ISSUE 2
SOLUTION
- On the user account switching issue, Daniel accessed the GNOME community for information on how to solve the issue and he was glad that the community was able to help him out to get it working although no perfectly.
- To resolve the issue of screen automatically switching off while trying to install python, Daniel feels excited as it takes him only a simple line of code “sudo apt install” to restore his complete GUI and graphics user interface.
SUMMARY OF RESEARCH
1. He enjoys and complimented the sleekness of the GNOME Desktop Environment which enables him use dark screen very easily.
2. He loves the fact that installation packages are not heavy and does not come with too many icons unlike windows.
3. He appreciate that the navigation is easy to use.
4. He feels the user interface looks very nice.
5. He could not point any dislike he has about GNOME
6. He for now cannot identify any part of GNOME he will like to be changed as and feels perhaps might be able to find out much later.
CONCLUSION
I conducted my GNOME user interview with Daniel Mbazue, a Backend Software Engineer and Blockchain Solidity developer who has been using Ubuntu for 3years and actively using the GNOME 45 desktop environment for 3months. Daniel identified two major problems he often encounter while using GNOME which are the issue of inability to switch user accounts and system automatically switching off while trying to install python3 in his Ubuntu. He got solution for first problem from the GNOME community while on the second problem, running a simple code "sudo apt install" helped him restore his GUI and graphics user interface.
NOTE: Below are the follwoing attachments:
**Interview Notes:*Interview_Note__1_.docx Interview Script: Interview Script and Plan.docx
Full Video of the interview: Full_Interview.mkv