Computer Software and its Accessibility by type Muhammad Yousuf Ali
This blog about the software and how a general users, students and computer experts get the software and what are the different types of software with respect to the accessibility and availability. This describe the answer of the following questions.
What is Software?
How do you get software?
What are the Category of Software with respect to Accessibility?
What is Software?
According to encyclopedia Britannica
“The Software instructions that tell a computer what to do. Software comprises the entire set of programs, procedures, and routines associated with the operation of a computer system.”
https://www.britannica.com/technology/software
Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. Sometimes abbreviated as SW and S/W, software.
How do you get software?
Software can also be downloaded to a computer over the Internet. Once downloaded, setup files are run to start the installation process on your computer.
Software can be purchased at a retail computer store or online and come in a box containing all the disks drives (CD, DVD, or Pen Drive, External Hard derive)
What are the Category of Software with respect to Accessibility/availability?
There are five types of software with respect to accessibility and availability
1. Freeware
2. Shareware
3. Open Source
4. Closed sources
5. Middle Ware
1. Freeware Software
Free ware software is a type of proprietary software that is released without charge to the public. Freeware may be intended to benefit its producer by, for example, encouraging sales of a more capable version.
2. Shareware
Shareware is a type of proprietary software that is initially shared by the owner for trial use at little or no cost. Often the software has limited functionality or incomplete documentation until the user sends payment to the software developer.
3. Open Source
Open-source software (OSS) is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose.[1][2] Open-source software may be developed in a collaborative public manner.
4. Closed source
Closed source software is software for which the source code is not freely available. It is developed and provided to the user as a fully compiled, executable set of files. The developer often provides support to users after purchase and ensures that the software works as expected.
5. Middle Ware
Middleware is software that different applications use to communicate with each other. It provides functionality to connect applications intelligently and efficiently so that you can innovate faster.
How to Cite this Article
M.Y. Ali (2023). Computer Software and its Accessibility by type. https://profileusuf.wordpress.com/computer-software/
References:
1. St. Laurent, Andrew M. (2008). Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing O’Reilly Media. p. 4. ISBN 9780596553951
2. Corbly, James Edward (25 September 2014). “The Free Software Alternative: Freeware, Open Source Software, and Libraries”. Information Technology and Libraries. 33 (3): 65. doi:10.6017/ital.v33i3.5105 ISSN 2163-5226.
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