At the dawn of the development of computer technology, the concept of programming languages and sequences of commands created with their help appeared, which later became known as applications. In fact, these are software products (namely software). That is, a given set of commands allows you to perform a particular task or to ensure the functioning of the computer system as a whole. What are they like?
Software products: basic classification
We will make a reservation right away: we will not climb into the jungle of computer technology, but we will try to figure out what the programs are and what they are, in simple language, so to speak.
Today, there are several types of software classification, or software. Among the main types distinguish:
- system software;
- application software.
Sometimes this list also includes development and administration tools in the form of special utilities, but, by and large, they can be attributed to system applications.
Types of software products for use
There is another classification, implying the use of software products by type of access rights to them and cost. This may include the following concepts:
- proprietary software with the monopoly of the copyright holder, which provides only the rights to install and use it, while maintaining intellectual property rights;
- commercial (paid) software, which implies the purchase of a software product and an official license;
- shareware, which can be used for a certain time (usually 30 days), after which you should purchase a license or register a product;
- freeware software - programs and applications that do not require a license or payment;
- free open source software (GNU license), which anyone can modify or modify as they wish.
Now consider some types of entire software packages and single applications of each type in more detail.
Firmware Software
This type of software belongs to the system part. In other words, these are basic level tools that provide interaction between the computer software environment (operating system or installed applications).
Today they are called drivers - small programs designed to ensure that the software part of a computer system recognizes and ensures the correct operation of any hardware component. As a rule, all settings are saved in a special chip on the motherboard, which has its own software environment called the BIOS. And it is the BIOS that stores not only the basic hardware settings, but also diagnoses it when the computer terminal is turned on (if all conflicts or malfunctions are not detected, a characteristic single sound signal is issued when the computer starts through the system speaker).
Operating Systems
Probably, you do not need to say that operating systems are the main part of the software that communicates between the computer and the user. Roughly speaking, this is a kind of layer, thanks to the interface of which the user gets access to certain functions of the system and to perform certain tasks using applications of different types and levels.
To date, a fairly large number of them are known, and not all of them are equivalent. Most have a graphical interface, but there are even textual "OSes". In any case, they include the most powerful tools for ensuring the functioning of all components and the user's work in the system, including language translators and many other things.
Development tools
The development of software products of any type, whether it is an OS or any application, is carried out on the basis of a programming language that includes not only a certain set of commands, but also translators, language interpreters, compilers, etc. (sometimes even disassemblers) .
Many languages use manual input of commands, say, in text mode, you can even find entire specialized platforms that allow you to work with languages like Delphi or Java without special knowledge, so to speak, on an intuitive level. By the way, the same applies to web site development, when pages and their relationships are created based on the built-in capabilities that such software products possess. Examples? You are welcome! The same editor MS Office Word, WordPress, etc.
Administration Tools
System administration is an integral part of any software environment. Indeed, the timely detection and correction of malfunctions and errors in the operation of a single computer, terminals on the local network, or even in the functioning of entire Internet resources hosted on remote servers, avoids many problems in the future.
For example, in the standard set of Windows-systems (and not only in them) there are also special programs and applications that allow, for example, checking the hard drive for errors, testing the RAM, etc. It goes without saying that there are specialized third-party utilities with advanced toolkits in their functionality. With their use, system administration enters a new, higher level.
An interesting example is the program for searching and fixing system errors on the hard drive of a Belarusian developer called Victoria, which has much more features than the standard Windows utility. HDD Regenerator can generally “remagnetize” hard drives, restoring bad sectors, but without affecting the information stored in clusters. And this is only a small fraction of the applications in this area. And if we consider also applications for system administrators that allow you to control any local computer on the network or even the functioning of the entire such network system, you just wonder where the progress has come: today there are so many utilities that you won’t describe everything.
Information Security
As for the protection of information and ensuring the security of any system, such tools also exist here. Such products, whose software modules are written in top-level languages, allow you to counteract threats of any type.
But this is not only about antiviruses. All sorts of anti-spyware, programs that prevent the penetration of annoying advertising, and, in the end, even virtual firewalls called firewalls or firewalls can equally be attributed to this.
Internet access facilities
The previous type of application focused on ensuring information security is very closely connected with access to the Internet, because today most of the threats come from there.
As for ensuring access itself, the main tools are so-called Internet browsers that work on the basis of strictly defined network settings (computer IP address, subnet mask, primary and secondary gateways, DNS-, WINS- and proxy servers, etc. .). Such applications are often referred to as application programs.
Application software
Now let's move on to the largest class of programs - application software. Applications of this type are strictly focused on specific tasks, for example, mathematical, office, entertainment, scientific and many others.
It is simply physically impossible to list everything, but several directions can be identified with certainty: work with documentation and spreadsheets (office programs and workflow systems), accounting, multimedia processing (graphics, audio and video), design systems, platforms for mathematical and scientific calculations or modeling, database tools, email clients and browsers, file managers, etc. You can list such applications indefinitely.
Windows basic set
Now consider the main software products that are available on any operating system, using Windows as an example. It goes without saying that you can call such a set universal with a big stretch, because in other "OSes" such sets can differ significantly. Nevertheless, due to the fact that it is these OSs that we have received the most distribution, we will discuss this particular package.
If anyone paid attention, after the first installation of Windows in the main menu you can find programs sorted by purpose: standard, service, administrative, etc. But far from everyone knows that this is only a small part of the iceberg. The fact is that many utility utilities are not displayed on the menu. For the most part, they can be called either from the command line or from the Run menu.
In addition, the “clean” Windows system completely lacks the main office suite, although there are still tools for viewing some documents (the same Word Pad). Thus, it turns out that after installing the “OSes” themselves, the user has to independently install the main office suite. However, this does not cause difficulties.
Well, you can not talk about calculators, notepads, file managers, Internet browsers and much more - they are available in every system.
Utility programs
Finally, we will consider products whose software capabilities allow not only to diagnose or optimize the system, but also are an additional tool when working with some types of data.
The first type of application is often called optimizers. They find and fix system-level errors in the "OS" itself, and also allow you to disable some background processes that are unnecessary for the user, consuming an excessive amount of resources, thereby speeding up the system as a whole.
In Windows there are practically no such tools, except perhaps the standard means of checking and defragmenting the disk. Unfortunately, unused components or background services must be disabled manually, and without special knowledge this can lead to unpredictable consequences. But the optimizers work in automatic mode, disabling only what will not lead to critical failures.
The same applies to editing and defragmenting the registry, which can contain a huge number of useless, outdated or incorrect links, which at least increases the loading time of specific applications and the entire system at startup.
Removing applications the standard Windows uninstaller is also not always done correctly. Often, upon completion of the process, a lot of garbage remains in the system in the form of residual files, folders, or entries in the same registry. Here unique utilities like iObit Uninstaller come to the rescue, which cleans the system completely and completely, after which the user does not have to search and delete the remaining objects manually.
Another example is updating device drivers. Here, the automatic mode is also not provided. But third-party utilities like Driver Booster deal with this in an elementary way, and they update drivers exclusively from official sources (sites of the equipment manufacturer).
Finally, one of the most popular are archivers, because even when downloading files from the Internet with a sufficiently large initial volume, they are packed in special archives to reduce the "weight". In addition, large folders can be divided into several separate archives, and programs of the WinRAR, WinZIP or 7Zip level allow you to process such data in an elementary way.
Instead of an afterword
In conclusion, it remains to say that, of course, these are far from all the software products that can be found today. However, it is thought that even with such a minimal description, any user will be able to feel the difference between different programs and make general conclusions about what they generally are and what they serve.