Software are computer programmes that allow the user to complete a task. Broadly speaking the software can be an operating system or an application which is work specific and works within the environment of the operating system. However, sometimes words – software and application – are interchangeably used. Software needs to be accessed before it can be used. There are many terms used for process of accessing software including running, executing, starting up, opening, and others.
We can classify the software to be Operating Systems, Word processors, Spreadsheets, Database, Internet Browsers, Emails, Graphic programmes. .
All software are stored in files. These files are stored on a disk, card, tape or some storage devices available. There are millions of different pieces of software available for almost every conceivable need. Such Software are available commercially through stores and mail order and also available on the Internet. Software are also sometimes available through an
Open Source license which allows anyone to use the same free of charge as long as the license is maintained. If you can’t find the application that you need, software development companies can design software as per your specific needs.
An operating system consists of a set of programs, which control, coordinates and supervises the activities of the various components of a computer system. Its function is to link between the computer hardware and user. Without an operating system, a computer is useless. Thus, we can say that operating system software have direct control and access to the computer hardware and memory locations . They perform I/O operations on various memory locations , and control the hardware , to make the application software do a task .
Some examples of Operating systems / system software are :
1) Microsoft Windows
2) Linux
3) Unix
4) Mac OSX
5) DOS
6) BIOS Software
7) HD Sector Boot Software
8) Device Driver Software i.e Graphics Driver etc
9) Linker Software
10) Assembler and Compiler Software
MSDOS : It is among the older operating system software and now a days rarely used as Windows have replaced this once very popular software. The term DOS stands for Disk Operating System developed by Microsoft for micro computer. It is the only OS, which can be loaded in the main memory of the computer using a single disk.
· It is a single user operating system.
· It has a character user interface.
· MS DOS provides all the commands for file handling.
Characteristics of DOS
· It is not case sensitive.
· The file names are restricted to 8 characters only.
· It does not support space entries in the file name.
Broad Categories of Operating System
a) Graphic User Interface (GUI) : Itcontains graphics and icons that can be regulated by mouse. Some of the GUI operating systems are as follows:
System 7.X ; Windows 98 ; Windows CE
b) Multi-user : With the help of multi-user operating system, a computer can be used by more than one user at the same time or in different time intervals. Some of the examples of multi-user operating system are as follows:
Linux ; Unix ; Windows 2000
c) Multi-processing : Multi-processing operating system is capable of getting the work done from the computer by extending support to more than one processors. Some of the examples of multi-processing operating system are as follows:
Linux; Unix ; Windows 2000
d) Multi-tasking : With the help of such operating system, a number of softwares can be executed at one time. Some of the examples are as follows:
Unix ; Windows 2000
e) Multi-threading : With the help of such operating system, different parts of a software program can be executed simultaneously. Some of the examples are as follows:
Linux ; Unix; Windows 2000
Application Software
Application software run under System Software , and are made to do a specific task. These software are popularly called as application softwares. Some good examples such applications are :
· Web browser (Internet Explorer, Chrome, Opera, Safari, Mozilla, Netscape, Firefox) – Used for viewing pages on World Wide Web;
· Word processing software, ( MS Word, Corel WordPerfect, Abiword) – used for writing letters, reports, essays, novels and other types of text
· Spreadsheet software (MS Excel, Lotus 123, VisiCalc ) – Track budgets, balance sheets, investments
· Database software (MySQL, Access, Oracle, Sybase, 4th Dimension)
· Photo Editors (Photoshop, Fireworks, PhotoPaint, Gimp)
· Presentation graphics software (MS Powerpoint) – create slideshows for meetings
· Music / Sound Software (iTunes)
· Audio / Video Software (VLC Medica Player)
· Graphic Software (Adobe Photoshop)
· Email clients (Outlook, Eudora, Entourage) – Used for sending emails and files to other people
· Desktop Publishing (PageMaker, InDesign, QuarkXPress) – used for making a magazine a poster or an advertisement;
· Computer-aided Design software (AutoCAD, SolidWorks, MicroStation) – used to create blueprints or designs;
We have already clarified that all computers need some sort of Operating System (OS) so as to access and control the hardware. Now a days, on most of the PCs we use some form of Microsoft’s operating systems. The original Microsoft operating system was called DOS (Disk Operating System), but the same has now become obsolete. Now most computers use Windows. Windows comes in various versions beginning with version 3.x then 95, 98, ME, XP, Vista and currently version 7 and Version 8.1. In some computers, people use IBM’s O/S2. Apple’s Mac use their own operating system beginning with OS 1 though to OS 10.x.
Some computer professionals, Internet Service Providers (ISP) and mainframe computer users use an operating system such as UNIX (or a variant such as Linux), Windows NT or 2000 (Win2k) or one of the other network or server based operating systems.
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