Software

As the world is advancing new technologies are introduced. One technology that introduces a great revolution in the world is computers. They make our life easy and fast. Another technology that links the whole world through computers is internet. The internet is the heart of information age. It links educational, commercial, nonprofit, and military entities as well as individuals. But the question is that how these computers work? What makes them able to do these activities? Its simple answer is that computer is a piece of hardware and for the working of hardware there is a need of software. It gives step by step electronically encoded instructions to the computer hardware. In fact, without computer software hardware is useless. There are two types of soft wares:

1. Application Software
2. System Software

Application Software:

Application software is software that is used to run different problem solving activities on our computer like calculator, anti virus software, browsers, MS office etc. They should be installed first on our computer then they can work according to our requirements. Their functionality also depends upon the system software and hardware.

System Software:

System software is software that helps the computer to perform essential operating tasks. Application software cannot run without system software. There are three basic components of system software.

1. Operating Systems: An operating system is the principal component of system software in any computing system also called as software platform. It manages the basic operations of program. For example Windows, Linux, Macintosh etc.

2. Device Drivers: Device drivers help the computer to control peripheral devices. For example USB drivers, mother board drivers etc.

3. Utility Programs: Utility programs are normally used to support, improve or enlarge present programs within a computer system. For example DVD software decoder, video editing software of window media player etc

4. Language Translator: It is used to translate the computer software into our regional languages.

Software cCracks:

Software cracks are used to use soft wares illegally. It is made possible by making CD keys, serial numbers etc. It is common in all developed countries. It is a bad impact in the way of software development.

There are various types of software available in the market or on the web.

1. Free Software (Freeware)
2. Licensed Software
3. Pirated Software
4. Rental Ware
5. Share Ware
6. Public Domain Software
7. Commercial Software
8. Custom Software

Commercial Software:

Commercial software is also called the proprietary software or packaged software that’s offered for sale i.e. MS word, Adobe Photoshop etc. This software is copyrighted. Software manufacturers do not sell you their software; rather, they sell you a license to become an authorized user of it.

Public Domain Software:

Public domain software is not protected by copyright and thus can be duplicated by any one at will. They are available freely on the internet. You can download this software freely without any fear of prosecution.

Shareware:

Shareware is copyrighted software that is distributed freely but requires that users make a money contribution, or pay a registration fee, to continue using it-in other words you can try it before buying.

Freeware:

Software that is distributed free of charge is called freeware. This is provided by developers to test its functionality. Free soft wares includes free antivirus soft wares, media players, file compression software, IPOD software etc. These all software can be easily found on the internet. People can easily download it from websites without any charges.

Pirated Software:

This type of software is obtained illegally. It is a stone in the path of software development.

Licensed Software:

It demands some finance from the user also called tax software.

Financial Software:

It is a growing category that is used at business level like peach tree in accounting.

Thus now it seems that our lives are totally dependant upon the software based systems. People think that this is the only solution that can solve our problems. In fact, we can say that country’s progress is totally based on Software systems.