Unit 2 - Types of Software

 CBSE Revision Notes

Class-11 Computer Science (New Syllabus)
Unit 2: Computer Systems and Organisation (CSO)

Types of Software

Software is a program that tells our computer what to do and how to do it. Computer needs software to perform any job without software computer cannot perform any task. We have different kind of software’s that we need to perform our tasks like system software, application software, utilities. Let’s discuss them one by one

System software: System software helps application software to interact with the hardware. System software is also known as operating system like windows 7, windows 8.1, windows 10, linux, unix, mac os. What they do is they manage resources of our computer. They assign hardware to application software based on their needs. We can also say OS is the link between user and the hardware without OS no application software will run nor can user interact with the hardware. OS manages data on the disk. It also manages start up processes.

Application software: It’s a group of programs designed to accomplish an individual task or group of related tasks E.g. Ms Word is designed to work on text documents or we can put some images on it. Adobe PDF reader reads our PDF format documents. Application software is designed into 2 categories

  1. User-designed application software: These are software’s that are created or designed for big companies and government departments. For example we have pinnacle for our banks this software is not for public use it’s used by the banks only.
  2. Ready-made application software’s: A collection of programs used for general use. Like Adobe Photoshop it’s meant for everyone this is not designed for some company but can be used by anyone.

Utility software: Utility software helps to manage, maintain and control computer resources. Operating systems typically contain the necessary tools for this, but separate utility programs can provide improved functionality.
Examples of utility programs are antivirus software, backup software and disk tools. Let's look at each of these in a bit more detail.
Antivirus software, as the name suggests, helps to protect a computer system from viruses and other harmful programs. A computer virus is a computer program that can cause damage to a computer's software, hardware or data. It is referred to as a virus because it has the capability to replicate itself and hide inside other computer files.
One of the most common ways to get a virus is to download a file from the Internet. Antivirus software scans your online activity to make sure you are not downloading infected files. New viruses are coming out all the time, so antivirus software needs to be updated very frequently.
Backup software helps in the creation of a backup of the files on your computer. Most computer systems use a hard disk drive for storage. While these are generally very robust, they can fail or crash, resulting in costly data loss. Backup software helps you copy the most important files to another storage device, such as an external hard disk. You can also make an exact copy of your hard disk.
Increasingly, backup software uses cloud storage to create backups. This typically means you pay a fee to use the storage space of a third party and use their backup software to manage which files are going to be backed up.
Disk tools include a range of different tools to manage hard disk drives and other storage devices. This includes utilities to scan the hard disks for any potential problems, disk cleaners to remove any unnecessary files, and disk defragmenters to re-organize file fragments on a hard disk drive to increase performance. Disk tools are important because a failure of a hard disk drive can have disastrous consequences. Keeping disks running efficiently is an important part of overall computer maintenance.

Libraries: In computing, a library is a collection of similar objects that are stored for occasional use - most frequently, programs in source code or object code form, data files, scripts, templates, fonts, and physical storage units such as tape cartridges. Here are some common types of libraries.

  1. A program library is a collection of (usually) precompiled, reusable programming routines that a programmer can "call" when writing code so that the programmer doesn't have to write it. A dynamic link library (DLL) is one type of program library. Another type of program library is a class library, whose stored routines are class definitions in object-oriented programming (OOP). Graphical user interface (GUI) components such as scroll bars, buttons, and windowing routines are generally stored in a class library.
  2. A storage library is a collection of physical storage media such as tapes or disks and a way to access them. A tape library, for example, contains tape cartridges and a mechanism that moves them into and out of the drive(s) where their content is read or updated.
  3. A data library is the area of a data center (a centralized area housing computer systems and equipment) where storage media are archived. Online service providers also sometimes refer to a directory on a server containing files for downloading as a data library.
  4. A virtual library is simply the online version of the traditional library. Books and documents are made available over the Web, and may be read in line or downloaded.