Software
Software is what runs on your computer, the programs that allow you to actually do things with your computer’s hardware. The fundamental piece of software that governs a computer’s basic operation is called the operating system. It controls interaction with the computer’s hardware and presents software interfaces to it so that other programs can take advantage of it. Microsoft’s Windows is by the far the dominant operating system in the world today, although Unix and its many variants are important too, particularly in some sectors.
Most software today is written to work with a specific operating system. In some cases, a single piece of code will also run effectively in several variants of an operating system, such as Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Windows Vista.
Software today is most often distributed on CDs or DVDs. Diskettes used to be common but are now more rare. In some cases, software requires no physical medium but will simply be transferred to a computer over a network, such as the Internet. Typically, software is stored on a computer’s hard drive but it is technically possible, though rare, for software to exist and run in the computer’s memory alone, as is often the case, for example, with Java applets.
Webmaster Resources
Entertainment Resources
Recent Blog Entries
