A Usability Study On Ubuntu
Operating System and Third Part Software Manager Using the
Cognitive Walkthrough Method
Abstract
Operating system – As name self explains, it manages the
operation between Computer hardware and software resources. Application program
is one of the components of operating system. Application program requires operating
system to function. Major operating system are Linux operating system, Windows
operating system, Mac.
Ubuntu is an
open-source Linux operating system, which is based on debian stable Linux distribution.
Currently Ubuntu run across platforms such as laptops/desktops, servers and
mobiles. Linux is similar to Unix but was developed without any Unix Code.
Linux is an open license model, which has a general public license in which the
Linux kernel code is available for studying and modification. Some of the
popular Linux distributions are, red hat, Ubuntu, Linux mint, kali.
Introduction
How to install a
third party software is one of the major tasks carried out in any operating
system. The approach and procedure is different for the major operating system
distributions, say windows, Linux and mac. So let’s walkthrough along to
install a third party software in Ubuntu operating system which is based debian
Linux distributions. Ubuntu comes with a default list of useful
programs. However, most of the times, a specific software for serving the
specific purpose is needed which is not served by default applications.
Software is a program which can be run on computer. However, for the smooth
run of this software, it requires other resources in the operating system to
work for it. So there are hundreds of files required just to make the program
work. Upon that, the files has to be loaded onto the right locations, depending
on different operating system architecture. Ubuntu stores all the needed files
into a package, which has to be run. Thus package combines all files into a
single file, which can be handled more easily.
Core
tasks during the cognitive walkthrough are:
1. Validation of the software and installation of the system software.
2. Configuration of the fundamental services for the smooth and efficient run of the operating system.
3. The right way to start up and shutdown the operating system.
4. General Installation procedure for a user application.
1. Validation of the software and installation of the system software.
2. Configuration of the fundamental services for the smooth and efficient run of the operating system.
3. The right way to start up and shutdown the operating system.
4. General Installation procedure for a user application.
Usability
Guidelines
Guidelines used to
evaluate the core task are as follows:
G1 - Users should be aware of the steps they have to perform to
complete a core task.
G2 - Users should be able to determine how to perform these
steps.
G3 - Users should know when they have successfully completed a
core task.
G4 - Users should be able to recognize, diagnose, and recover
from non-critical errors.
G5 - Users should not make dangerous errors from which they
cannot recover.
G6 -Users should be comfortable with the terminology used in any
interface dialogues or documentation.
G7 - Users should be sufficiently comfortable with the interface
to continue using it.
G8 - Users should be aware of the application’s status at all
times.
Ubuntu Operating
System Installation:
The latest version of Ubuntu is 16.04.1 and is downloaded from the Ubuntu website. There are a couple of requirements to be met before kick starting the installation procedure. Validation of the software to check its health is important to start on. At times there are possibilities a software download can go corrupted. At the outset, if the hardware requirements fail, there is no point in continuing the installation, else if continued, the system would throw various errors during the operation of the system. Once this is met, the user interface of Ubuntu guides the user step by step. [G1,G3]
Ubuntu offers two types of installing
the operating system
1. To externally install alongside
another operating system
2. To inside the same operating
system.
The advantage of installing inside an
operating system is that, the files of the base operating system can be accessed
through Ubuntu as it is. Therefore, by saving the switch over time between the
operating systems and help solve duplicating the dataset. The next important
aspect to be noted is the file system of Ubuntu. As in general NTFS/ fat 32 is
used by Windows, likewise Ubuntu Linux considers ext3, ext4, ext5 as its file
system. This is one of the critical step, a user should be aware of, as there
are possibilities to lose valuable data in the hard disk. One of of the
possibilities is, a user tends to have couple of operating systems to work on
his machine. It is very important to know the number of partitions in the hard
disk and its sizes. If confused with the partition name and formatted, then the
user losses all data in that partition. After setting up these, the control
shifts back to the system software to extract and copy the system files. Once
done, asks the user to restart the operating system now or later, to complete
the installation process.[G2,G5]
Configuration: Once the installation is done it is necessary to check for the available updates for the system. Configure default settings and preferences of audio, video, network applications. One of the good feature of Ubuntu is the use of terminal for most of the activities. Whether to update, install, traverse files terminal is a handy tool used extensively. [G8]
Role of binary file - Let’s look into the
importance of the source code and binary file for installing a software. Generally,
when a package is created, for a particular software or program, source code
will be stored, for the program in the package. Source code is nothing but a
set of instructions for the computer, in order to execute the software, which
is written in human readable language. Machines cannot understand this human
native-language and hence the need to interpret the source code. This task is
taken care by interpreter or compiler. One of the best ways of achieving this is
by converting the source file into a binary file, in which machines can
understand. Binary packages are ones
which have been made specifically for one type of computer, or architecture. [G1]
Package
Dependencies – Sometime a program needs same file to support the
installation of its own software. Instead of storing each file into each
package, a separate package can be installed to provide, so that any program in
need of that file, can use them directly. So, to install a program which needs
one of these files, the package containing those files must also be installed.
When a package depends on another in this way, it is known as a package dependency. By
specifying dependencies, packages can be made smaller and simpler, and
duplicates of files and programs are mostly removed. When we install a program,
its dependencies must be installed at the same time. Usually, most of the
required dependencies will already be installed, but a few extras may be
needed. [G1,G5]
Package Managers - A package manager is an application which comes along with the operating
system which deals with the downloading and installation of packages. Ubuntu
includes a couple of package managers by default, and which we use depends on
how advanced the package management tasks are that we want to achieve. The
basic package manager, we are going to use here is the Add/Remove tool, which is very
easy to use.[G1]
Repositories - Ubuntu stores all its packages at a location called repositories. Repository stores packages
of similar types, which can be downloaded and installed using a package
manager. A package manager will store an index of all of the packages available
from a repository/ software channel. At times the index are rebuilt, to make
sure that it is up to date and knows which packages have been upgraded or added
into the channel since it last checked. In addition to the official Ubuntu
repositories, it is possible to use third
party repositories. Be careful, though - some are not compatible with
Ubuntu and using them may cause programs to stop working or may even cause
serious damage to your installation. [G6]
Installing a Package -
This section explains how to install packages using the various tools available
in Ubuntu. [G1,G6]
·
Graphical method
·
Text Based Methods (Terminal)
Let’s walkthrough the graphical method first. Not all the packages can be installed through graphical method. For such
packages, text based methods are suitable. In Ubuntu we find most
of the packages at "Software Centre ". Software from additional repositories may be installed. Once this has
finished, click Close. Our
new programs are installed and are ready to use.
Advanced graphical method - The Synaptic package manager is a more user
friendly method for installation of the software packages. If any problem in
finding the package with Add/Remove tool, we need to try using the search in
Synaptic.[G6]
Text Based Methods - Text based methods demands
the knowledge of how to use the terminal and its commands. While install
packages, we should consider using an AptURL over apt-get or aptitude.[G5]
Aptitude - the
text-based method - Aptitude is a
text-based package manager, which must be run from a Terminal.
apt-get method
The apt-get program is a
command-line package manager, which should be used if the Add/Remove tool and
Synaptic ever run into problems. It provides an advanced interface to APT, the
underlying package management system which Ubuntu uses, but is reasonably easy
to operate.
Installing downloaded packages
We may wish to install a package you
have downloaded from a website, rather than from a software repository. These
packages are called .debfiles. GDebi is a simple tool to install .deb files. It
has a graphical user interface but can also be used in terminal. It lets us to
install local deb packages resolving and installing its dependencies. It
automatically checks packages for their dependencies and will try to download
them from the Ubuntu software repositories if possible. We may first need to
install GDebi - simply install the gdebi package using one of the package
managers listed above, or open a Terminal and type sudo apt-get install gdebi.
Double-click the package to open it
with GDebi. If all dependencies have been met for the selected package, click
the 'Install package' button to install it. GDebi will warn, if there are unmet
dependencies, which means that there's dependencies that aren't resolved in the
repositories that we are using. If all
met and resolved, the software is installed and ready to use.[G1,G4,G6]
-Amit Vijayan
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