Computer software, or just software, is a collection of computer programs and related

data that provide the instructions telling a computer what to do and how to do it. We can
also say software refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of
the computer for some purposes. Program software performs the function of the program
it implements, either by directly providing instructions to the computer hardware or by
serving as input to another piece of software. The term was coined to contrast to the old
term hardware (meaning physical devices). In contrast to hardware, software is
intangible, meaning it "cannot be touched".[1] Software is also sometimes used in a more
narrow sense, meaning application software only. Sometimes the term includes data that
has not traditionally been associated with computers, such as film, tapes, and records.

CATEGORIES OF SOFTWARE

(1) Application software is the general designation of computer programs for performing
user tasks. Application software may be general purpose (word processing, web
browsers, ...) or have a specific purpose (accounting, truck scheduling, ...). Application
software contrasts with

(2) System software, a generic term referring to the computer programs used to start and
run computer systems and networks; and

(3) Computer programming tools, such as compilers and linkers, used to translate and
combine computer program source code and libraries into executable programs
(programs that will belong to one of the three said categories).

EXAMPLES OF APPLICATION SOFTWARE

Ms office 2003 and 2007

mozilla firefox ( Browser )
Encarta
ms word
adobe acrobat
notepad
wordpad

Examples of Operating Systems

There are many different operating systems. Each do the same thing: they control all
input, processing and output. Click on the links to see examples of the desktop for the
operating systems listed. These examples open in their own window. Click the X in the
upper-right corner of the window to return to this page.

DOS - Disk Operating System - one of the first operating systems for the personal
computer. When you turned the computer on all you saw was the command prompt
which looked like c:\ >. You had to type all commands at the command prompt which
might look like c:\>wp\wp.exe. This is called a command-line interface.
It was not very "user friendly"

• Windows - The Windows operating system, a product of Microsoft, is a GUI (graphical

user interface) operating system. This type of "user friendly" operating system is said to
have WIMP features:
o Windows
o Icons
o Menus
o Pointing device (mouse)
• MacOS - Macintosh, a product of Apple, has its own operating system with a GUI and
WIMP features.
• Unix - Linux (the PC version of Unix) - Unix and Linux were originally created with a
command-line interface, but recently have added GUI enhancements.