Operating Systems

The Operating Systems (OS) acts as the master control program for a computer. It is the underlying manager that coordinates all the working parts of the computer and thereby allows you to interact with the computer thought the input and output devices. The OS also manages the storing and retrieval of files on your computer. The most widely used personal computer operating system software is Microsoft Windows followed by Apple's Macintosh OS and various flavors of the UNIX operating system. Lead by the Macintosh OS, today's operating systems have become more user friendly. They now use Graphical User Interfaces (GUI) that are fairly intuitive and interacting with the computer longer requires an in-depth understanding of cryptic commands.

Note: It is very important that you update your operating system frequently. Mac users have an automated updater in the control panel. Windows users can visit and your you can scan your machine for the necessary updates. Failing to update your machine may leave it vulnerable to malicious viruses.

Microsoft Office XP software

AppleWorks Software

StarOffice software

Application Software

Software that is designed and written for a specific personal, organizational, or processing task, such as graphics software are called Application software. These software programs run on top of the operating system (Windows, UNIX, Mac) and has been created to perform a specific task for a user.
Examples include:

Word Processors - that have made the typewriter almost obsolete because you have the ability to compose and edit your documents before printing. Formatting and embedding within word processors have improved to the point where they now often function as desktop publishing software and are often used for layouts for items such as flyers and posters.
Spreadsheets - electronic spreadsheets allow you to calculate and analyze sets of numbers. You can create formulas that are based on your sets of numbers and these formulas are instantly recalculated as you make changes to the number set on which they are based. Most Spreadsheet software also allows you to create graphs based on the sets of numbers. Graphs allow you to present your numerical data in an easy to understand manner.
Databases - These applications provide means of storing, organizing, retrieving, and sharing large amounts data. Data base Management Systems (DBMS) allow you to share data among many users and create different user interfaces that allow users to access and interact with vast amounts of data without any in-depth understanding of the underlying databases.
Presentation - Regardless of your chosen profession, you will at times have to present information to an audience. Presentation software allows you to put together professional presentations and allow you to effectively disseminate information.
Computer Aided Design (CAD) and Graphics - Architects and Engineers have been able to save millions of dollars by designing their work on computers. Specialized applications allow you to build and test your designs before manufacturing them. Three Dimensional (3D) modeling software allows for realistic drawings that are used for purposed ranging from conceptual design to movies.

Internet Software

Dedicated Internet software is possibly becoming a thing of the past as all applications become capable of accessing information over the Internet. Below are the most widely used types of Internet software:

Web Browsers - Software that you would use to access web pages. Internet explorer, Netscape Communicator, Firefox, Safari are the most widely used web browsers, but other browsers like Opera are forming their own loyal following. Some Internet Service Providers like America Online and their sister company CompuServe have their own customized web browsers that are at present based on Internet Explorer. Most web sites will work with any of these web browsers, but more complex sites tend to guarantee compatibility with Internet Explorer and Netscape.
E-mail - Possibly the most popular use of the Internet is to send electronic messages to people. E-mail programs such as Outlook Express, and Netscape Messenger (built into Communicator) make sending e-mail, managing addressbooks, and attaching images and other files very easy to accomplish.
Messenger/Chat - Spearheaded by Internet Relay Chat (IRC), chat programs have also become very popular communication tools. ICQ, AOL instant messenger, Yahoo messenger, Microsoft MSN messenger are all commonly used chat programs. Programs like Trillian allow you to chat with friends on any of the above chat services.
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) programs - these applications serve the specific purpose of being able to transfer files over the Internet.
Telnet - A text based utility that allows you to connect to UNIX computers over the Internet. It is often used to access and administer UNIX systems remotely. SSH (Secure Shell) is similar to telnet but much more secure. Anything that you type will be encrypted and transmitted. For this reason SSH is gaining in popularity.

Viewers and Plugins

Viewers allow us to open non-standard files on our computers. For example, video on the computer is in several competing formats.Real Player, Windows media player and Quick time are three of the most popular formats and they each have a player that plays their video and audio files. Companies that sell software that creates a type of file will often give away a"viewer" that will allow you to distribute the file and thereby allow your audience to view it for no extra cost.

An annoying problem that has hindered content distribution is that documents do not always look the same on different machines.Differences in fonts and display technologies often alter your formatting and layout. For this reason documents today are often distributed using the Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). You would need to purchase Adobe's Acrobat software to take any document and create a PDF file that will look identical on any computer. To view the PDF document users will need to use the (free) Acrobat Reader software. A limitation of the PDF format is that the document is not viewable by screen reader software used by persons with visual impairments. A person who uses such assistive technology will need to visit Adobe's online conversion tools to convert the document back into simple text so that they can access it.

Plugins allow us to enhance and expand software that we already have on our machines. One of the most popular plugins is the Macromedia Flash Player that allows you to view animations. The animations contained in this course were created using Flash and require that you have the Flash 5.0 plugin installed in your browser to view the animations.