A computer’s software refers to a program (or group of programs) that tells a computer what to do and how to operate. Software programs can provide one main task or multiple main tasks.
For example, a program for editing digital photos has one key task (ie, allowing photo editing) – but of course it would have numerous subtasks (ie, red-eye removal, color correction features, resizing, and cropping/cutting an image).
On the other hand, a computer’s operating system (a complex piece of software that basically manages and operates the entire computer) would perform many main tasks – for example, handling the input and output (i.e. the user types in a keyword or audio comes out of speakers). ), memory allocation, managing the computer’s hardware components (those are the electrical components that power a computer), and more.
Software can be roughly divided into two groups: computer program And system software. Application software would essentially include software that only fulfills one main task (e.g. image processing software as in the example above). This is in contrast to system software, which refers to complex multitasking programs that help run the entire system – such as an operating system.
These two main groups of software are explained in more detail below:
application software
This is software installed on an operating system (see “System Software” below for more information). As mentioned above, this type of software usually only performs one main task. Another example of application software would be a website browser: this is the program you are probably using to view this article. Examples of a browser are Internet Explorer, Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. In short, their main task/function is to make your web browsing easier.
Other types of application software are as follows:
- word processing – This type of software allows you to type documents and letters. Examples are Microsoft Office Word and Open Office.
- antivirus software – This type of software protects your computer system from malicious threats like virus and malware. Examples are Norton Antivirus, Kaspersky Antivirus and AVG Antivirus.
- photo editing – This type of software can be used to edit and manipulate photos and other digital images in various ways. Examples are Paint.net, Corel PaintShop Pro and Adobe Photoshop.
system software
This type of software is fairly accurately described as the heart of any computer system. Without system software, a computer could not really function. In short, it manages every aspect of a computer system – from how the hardware interacts with the software (‘drivers’) to providing the user with an interface and platform with the system (‘the operating system’). tea operating system – or ‘OS’ – is the software that loads when you turn on your computer. All application software is installed here. Examples of an operating system are Microsoft Windows (XP, Vista, 7, etc.), Linux (Ubuntu, CentOS) and Apple Mac OS X.
Other types of system software include device drives (these ensure that the hardware components work properly with the software and the computer system) and Utilities (These are also known as “utilities” and help to monitor, maintain, check and analyze various parts of a computer; such as “Task Manager” and “Disk Defragmenter in Windows operating systems”).
Source by James Raft
