Computer software and hardware
Computer software or just "software", is a collection of computer programs and related data that provides the instructions for telling acomputer what to do and how to do it. Software refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of the computer for some purposes. In other words, software is a set of programs, procedures, algorithms and its documentation concerned with the operation of a data processing system. Program software performs the function of the program it implements, either by directly providinginstructions to the computer hardware or by serving as input to another piece of software. The term was coined to contrast with the old term hardware (meaning physical devices). In contrast to hardware, software "cannot be touched".[4] Software is also sometimes used in a more narrow sense, meaning application software only.
Application software
Application software, also known as an "application" or an "app", is computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks. Examples include enterprise software, accounting software, office suites, graphics software and media players. Many application programs deal principally with documents. Apps may be bundled with the computer and its system software, or may be published separately. Some users are satisfied with the bundled apps and need never install one.
Application software is contrasted with system software and middleware, which manage and integrate a computer's capabilities, but typically do not directly apply them in the performance of tasks that benefit the user. The system software serves the application, which in turn serves the user.[5]
Application software applies the power of a particular computing platform or system software to a particular purpose. Some apps such as Microsoft Office are available in versions for several different platforms; others have narrower requirements and are thus called, for example, a Geography application for Windows or an Android application for education or Linux gaming. Sometimes a new and popular application arises that only runs on one platform, increasing the desirability of that platform. This is called a killer application.
System software
System software, or systems software, is computer software designed to operate and control the computer hardware and to provide a platform for running application software. System software includes operating systems, utility software, device drivers, window systems, and firmware. Frequently development tools such as compilers, linkers, and debuggers are classified as system software.
Computer network
A computer network, often simply referred to as a network, is a collection of hardware components and computers interconnected by communication channels that allow sharing of resources and information.[6] Where at least one process in one device is able to send/receive data to/from at least one process residing in a remote device, then the two devices are said to be in a network.
Networks may be classified according to a wide variety of characteristics such as the medium used to transport the data,communications protocol used, scale, topology, and organizational scope.
Communications protocols define the rules and data formats for exchanging information in a computer network, and provide the basis fornetwork programming. Well-known communications protocols are Ethernet, a hardware and Link Layer standard that is ubiquitous inlocal area networks, and the Internet Protocol Suite, which defines a set of protocols for internetworking, i.e. for data communication between multiple networks, as well as host-to-host data transfer, and application-specific data transmission formats.
Computer networking is sometimes considered a sub-discipline of electrical engineering, telecommunications, computer science,information technology or computer engineering, since it relies upon the theoretical and practical application of these disciplines.
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to serve billions of users worldwide. It is a network of networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government networks, of local to global scope, that are linked by a broad array of electronic, wireless and optical networking technologies. The Internet carries an extensive range of information resources and services, such as the inter-linked hypertext documents of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the infrastructure to support email.
Computer user
A user is an agent, either a human agent (end-user) or software agent, who uses a computer or network service. A user often has a user account and is identified by a username (also user name), screen name (also screenname), nickname (also nick), or handle, which derives from the identical Citizen's Band radio term.
In hacker-related terminology, users are divided into "lusers" and "power users"[citation needed].
In projects where the system actor is another system or a software agent, there may be no end-user. In that case, the end-users for the system is indirect end-users.
End-user
The term end-user refers to the ultimate operator of a piece of software, but it is also a concept in software engineering, referring to anabstraction of that group of end-users of computers (i.e. the expected user or target-user). The term is used to distinguish those who only operate the software from the developer of the system, who knows a programming language and uses it to create new functions for end-users.
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