Learning about a system’s software

System’s software is used to perform multiple functions and communicate between the OS of a computer, peripherals such as a keyboard and mouse, and firmware, which is permanently saved to a device and is needed for its operation, among other functions. These are part of the two main types of software: system software and application software.

System software allows a computer to communicate between hardware and applications. Think of a smartphone. In its most basic form, a phone is composed of hardware, which includes a battery, cameras, memory, screen, and all the physical components and peripherals. The OS allows those components to be used by applications.

Take the camera application of a phone. The system software lets the application communicate with the phone to use the camera to take a picture, edit it, save it, and share it. A computer’s OS also allows the hardware to communicate with programs. A design program will use the mouse or other peripherals that can be used to draw, create, use a touch screen if available, and more.

If we do not know our system’s software, we cannot create applications that can communicate effectively with our hardware, creating errors that can range from critical, or rendering a peripheral useless, to minor, where some components may work, say taking a picture, but others may not, such as saving or sharing the picture. The system software is created in such a way that it provides us with the easiest, most efficient way to communicate between the hardware and applications. To do this, systems use an OS. Let’s take a look at what those systems are and what they do.

Operating systems

The OS performs multiple tasks. As you may recall, error handling is part of an OS that checks for the most common possible errors to fix them without creating a larger problem or rendering an application worthless. Error handling is one of the OS’s most important tasks. In addition, the OS is responsible for the security of your computer or device. If you have a smartphone, you know that many updates to the OS are done to fix a security problem or prevent a security breach. The OS is responsible for only allowing an authorized user to interact with the content that is stored in the device.

In addition to security and error handling, an OS is responsible for allocating memory for files and organizing them. When we save and delete a file or program, the memory that had been used is freed. However, something might be saved immediately before and immediately after. The OS allocates and reallocates memory to maintain the best performance possible by the device. Memory management not only refers to user-saved files but also to the RAM.

The file management of a device is also run by the OS. The OS allocates the information as a filesystem, breaking the information into directories that can easily be accessed by the user and the device. The filesystem is responsible for keeping track of where files are, both from the OS and the user, the settings for access to the device, which are evolving constantly, and how to access the files and understand the statuses of those files. Access to devices has changed in recent years.

While computers typically use a username and password, many devices can now be accessed through a fingerprint, a numerical or alpha-numerical passcode, facial recognition, images, paths, and more. As any of these topics evolve, the OS evolves as well and needs to be updated or recreated. The OS is also responsible for allowing communication between the applications and the device.

Application software

Application software refers to software applications that perform a particular task. Think of the applications, or apps, that you can access from a mobile device. There are hundreds of types of applications, such as static games that live on a device, games that allow you to play others remotely, news applications, eBook readers, fitness training apps, alarms, clocks, music, and so much more! Applications always perform some form of task, be it for personal use, business use, or educational use.

Application software has multiple functions. You may find suites for productivity, such as Microsoft (Office) and Google products. When we need to research on the internet, we use applications called browsers, which allow us to access information and index it so that we can access it. These browsers include Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, Opera, and others. Browsers are used by both mobile devices and computers. Keep in mind that the purpose of an app is to perform a specific task for the end user.

Important note

As an aside, applications have grown exponentially since computers became household tools and phones started being used for other things rather than just for calling others. Early computers were used for just that: computing, or calculating mathematical analyses and tasks. That’s one of the reasons it is so important to have an understanding of the development and history of computer science. Since we cannot completely predict future uses of computer science and system software, the more we know about them, the more we will be able to create and adapt when technological advances happen.

In this section, we learned about system software. We also learned about OS software and application software. For this book, some applications will be more important as we sort through some of the problems presented, such as databases, productivity software, enterprise resource planning, and educational software.

In the next section, we’ll start to explore more about computing and how computers have an architecture that allows software and hardware to interact.