Two Broad Categories of Software Applications Software Examples: productivity software desktop publishing software educational software games Systems Software operating systems utility programs language translators
Productivity Software Packages Software Suites provide a set of full featured application packages reduced price common interface application packages can share data Integrated Software Packages only main features available cheaper than suites less storage required
Who owns software? Proprietary Software Shareware and Freeware single user license site licenses Shareware and Freeware www.shareware.com www.download.com
System Software Computer programs that enable application programs to run on a given set of hardware Examples: operating systems utility programs language translators
Operating System A collection of computer programs the manage a computer’s activities single user operating systems network operating systems
Operating System Functions starting the computer providing an interface command line graphical user interface (GUI) running other software assignment of system resources
Operating System Functions (cont.) scheduling CPU (central processing unit) tasks multiprogramming multitasking multiprocessing coprocessing symmetric multiprocessing parallel processing
Operating System Functions (cont.) monitoring activities housekeeping file management bookkeeping security
Utility Programs general purpose software tools often part of the set of operating system programs examples: disk utilities device drivers
Language Translators converts computer programs into machine language compilers interpreters
Language Translators High Level Languages (C, C++, Visual Basic, etc.) compilers, interpreters Assembly Language assemblers Machine Language Hardware
Operating Systems MS-DOS Windows 3.x (3.0, 3.1, 3.11) Windows 95, 98 Windows CE Windows NT Server, Workstation Windows 2000 Professional Standard, Advanced Server, Datacenter Server UNIX, Linux Novell Netware