What is System Software?

Any personal computer represents a complex electronic device, consisting of component blocks. All of them in sum form hardware (hardware). By analogy with living beings, hardware is a physical body. To manage it, you need the presence of something non-material: the soul, mind, spark - in this case it is not important. In computer technology, such an intangible component is system and application software (software, software). Without programs, the computer appears to be an unnecessary pile of electronic components. All of the above is true for laptops, netbooks, many mobile devices, etc.

The software is all those programs that run on the hardware configuration in use. They are divided into several conditional types, defining the purpose and functionality.

System software is the foundation. It defines to a great extent the ways of implementing the work of any programs launched. Can be represented as a combination of interacting programs, the main task of which is to manage the hardware components of the computer (processor, multimedia adapters, RAM). Often the term "system software pc" refers to the operating system (OS), although this is only partly true. System software, in fact, acts as a kind of "layer" between the hardware of the computer and application user programs. In modern systems, no running application can directly interact with components, in contrast to the DOS times, when such an approach was predominant. Now the application requires that it conform to certain rules and be written using a well-defined programming tool for the operating system in use. That's why programs for Windows can not work in the Linux environment (and vice versa), although in both cases, these operating systems properly manage the hardware components and provide a convenient graphical interface for interacting with the user. System software interprets and implements control commands for any hardware component coming from applications. In addition, modern computer operating systems are interactive, allowing the user to partially adjust their work.

System software is not the only type of software. There is also an application software. User programs , just define the application environment. For example, to work with graphics, use the environment of the graphic editor, for text documents - the appropriate editor, for the game - the application game environment, etc. Certain application software does not necessarily have to solve only a strictly limited range of tasks: it is not uncommon to run various specialized small applications through the program interface . Often application programs are called "applications", which very accurately determines their essence, because the basis for them is the system software that ensures the operability of applications.

A surprising fact: when launching any application program, the user, in fact, begins the process of interacting with the hardware components of the computer. For example, by enabling the playback of a song in the audio player, the user instructs the system and application software to output the sound through a sound card.