Software is categorized into two main categories:
- System Software
- Application Software
1. System Software
The system software controls the computer. It communicates with computer’s hardware (key board, mouse, modem, sound card etc) and controls different aspects of operations.
- Operating System
- Device Drivers
- Utility Programs
* Operating System
An operating system (sometimes abbreviated as "OS") is the program that manages all the other programs in a computer. The operating system is the foundation on which applications, such as word processing and spreadsheet programs, are built. (Microsoft)”.
* Device Driver
The device driver software is used to communicate between the devices and the computer. We have monitor, keyboard and mouse attached to almost all PC’s; if we look at the properties of these devices we will see that the operating system has installed special software to control these devices. This piece of software is called device driver software. When we attach a new device with the computer, we need software to communicate with this device. These kinds of software are known as device drivers e.g.
CD ROM driver, Sound Card driver and Modem driver.
* Utility Software
Utility software is a program that performs a very specific task, usually related to managing system resources. You would have noticed a utility of Disk Compression. Whenever you write a file and save it to the disk, Compression Utility compresses the file (reduce the file size) and write it to the disk and when you request this file from the disk, the compression utility uncompressed the file and shows its contents.
2. Application software
A program or group of programs designed for end users. For example a program for Accounting, Payroll, Inventory Control System, and guided system for planes. GPS (global positioning system), another application software, is being used in vehicles, which through satellite determines the geographical position of the vehicle.
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