Computer software has always been a general term mainly used for data that is often stored digitally, such as computer programs and other kinds of information read and written by computers. Today, however, this also includes data that has not traditionally been associated with computers, such as film, tapes and records. The term ‘computer software’ was originally penned in order to contrast ‘computer hardware’, down to the fact that software cannot be touched, whereas hardware can. Software is also used, often in a more narrows sense, meaning application software only.

Examples of software include

* Application software – such as word processors

* Firmware – which is the software programmed resident to electrically programmable memory devices on board main boards

* Middleware – controls and co-ordinates distributed systems

* System software – such as operating systems that govern computing resources and user convenience

* Testware – an umbrella term for all utilities and application software that serves in combination for testing, but not necessarily contributing to operational purposes.

* Video Games – apart from the hardware part of course

* Websites

Software includes all the various different forms and roles that digitally stored data may have and play in a computer, or any other similar system, regardless of whether the data is used as code for a CPU, or other interpreter, or whether it represents other kinds of information. Software encompasses a wide array of products that may be developed using different techniques such as ordinary programming languages, scripting languages, microcode, or an FPGA configuration.

Why is it called Computer Software?

Computer Software was originally named to end confusion and comparison to Computer Hardware. Computer hardware generally refers to the actual physical devices that are required in order to allow software to run on a computer, at the lowest level, executable code tends to consist of machine language instructions specific to an individual processor. A machine language consists of groups of what is known as ‘binary values’ signifying processor instructions that change the state of the computer.

Programs are an ordered sequence of instructions for changing the state of the computer in a particular sequence. It is usually written in high-level programming languages that are easier and more efficient for humans to use, which is closer to natural language than machine language.

Computer Software Industries and Organizations

The computer software industry is made up of a wide variety of different entities and people that produce the software, as a result of this there are many different software companies and programmers in the world. Because software is becoming more and more widely used throughout the world (in a variety of different areas such as finance, web searching, data, mathematics, mining, space exploration and gaming) software companies usually specialise in one particular area. For example, the company known as ‘Electronic Arts’ primarily create video games.

Selling software is also a highly lucrative industry also, Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, was the richest person in the world in 2009, largely by selling Microsoft Windows, and Microsoft Office software programs. The same can be said for Larry Ellison, largely through his Oracle database software. There are also many other non profit organisations such as the Free Software Foundation, GNU Project and the Mozilla Foundations. The most well known software companies are Microsoft, Oracle, Novell, SAP, Symantec, Adobe Systems and Corel.