computer

Software is a general term. It can refer to all computer instructions in general or to any specific set of computer instructions. It is inclusive of both machine instructions and source code (more human-understandable instructions that must be rendered into machine code by compilers or interpreters before being executed).
On most computer platforms, software can be grouped into a few broad categories: software is the basic software needed for a computer to operate. software refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of the computer. In other words, software is a set of programs, procedures, algorithms and its documentation concerned with the operation of a data processing system. Program software performs the function of the program it implements, either by directly providing instructions to the digital electronics or by serving as input to another piece of software.
Computer software is so called to distinguish it from computer hardware, which encompasses the physical interconnections and devices required to store and execute (or run) the software. At the lowest level, executable code consists of machine language instructions specific to an individual processor. A machine language consists of groups of binary values signifying processor instructions that change the state of the computer from its preceding state. 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 (closer to natural language) than machine language.
System software or operating system is the software used by the computer to translate inputs from various sources into a language which a machine can understand. Basically, the operating system coordinates the different hardware components of a computer. The constituents of system software include:

Device Drivers - For interaction with the hardware
Operating Systems - For running an application program on the computer. They are of many types like real time, embedded, distributed, etc.
Window System - For implementing window managers and support for graphics hardware. This also enables to work with several windows simultaneously.
Servers – This is required to the run the different programs as per the requests of the clients connected as a network or functioning as a single machine.
Utility – For configuring, analysing, optimizing and maintain the whole of a computer. Some categories of utility software are anti-virus, disk checkers, backup, file managers, disk storage, etc.

There are various operating systems in the market to be used by the business organisation to be used for business activities. The most popular operating system is from the stable of Microsoft. The most useful product of Microsoft is windows which are used by the entire business organisation, it is an operating system. Starting with windows Microsoft has migrated to vista; it is the latest offer in the market. Apart from Microsoft the other operating systems used is UNIX. UNIX is used for large office setups with extensive networking. Most of the business organisation uses UNIX for their business activities is because it helps the computers networks to connect with each other within the organisation.
ZENIX is also software which has now become redundant. Apache operating system is quite popular with webservers. IBM still uses proprietary operating system for its main frames. Propriety systems are generally built with the help of a variant of UNIX operating system. The uses of the operating systems to the business activities is that it helps the hardwares of the computers used within the organisation to run efficiently for longer term use. It helps the computers to have good long lasting memories and other hardware features. They also help in running the printers, readers, displays and keyboards. It is very important that the computers work properly. This is important because printing document, typing up documents and storing information within the database are day to day tasks within the business organisations. Therefore it is important that the good operating system is installed in the computers to perform well within the organisation. This software is mostly used by the IT technicians within the organisation rather than a normal user.
An application software allows end users to accomplish one or more specific (non- computer related) tasks. Typical applications include industrial automation, business software, educational software, databases and computer games. Businesses are probably the biggest users of application software, but almost every field of human activity now uses some form of application software.
Popular examples of application software used by the business organisation are the Microsoft office suite which includes word, excel and power point. These applications are used extensively by the business organisations. Internet explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Google chrome are some of the applications used to access the internet. E-mail software like outlook express is used to manage E-mails.
The uses of application software for the business activities are that they help the staff to complete the work and also to prepare reports and official letters to the staff. There are instances at which the staff will have to prepare some presentations to present to the clients or other companies therefore Microsoft power point is used to do the presentation. The other uses of the application software include:
Spread sheet – perform computational tasks such as payroll, taxes, statistical analysis etc.
Computer graphics and multimedia, create, view or manipulated video or still images, sounds etc.
Databases to store and retrieve information and revisit the information when needed.
It also helps in telecommunication networking and browse the internet and World Wide Web and also to send bulk amount of emails to the clients or any others regarding business.
It is clear that all software operated for working on a computer is classified as application software. In fact all user interfaces are an application. It is of much use to the business activities as it involves high usage of applications software for business purposes therefore application software is more useful to the business activities rather than to the normal users.
Programming languages and how they support business activities
This is one a kind of software which is used exclusively by computer programmers. A simple way to understand programming language is to think of them as bricks which can be used to create applications and operating system. As the name suggests this software type offers the user several tools for writing computer programs of different languages. Some basic tools used in this software include:

Compliers – It is used for the translating the programming language source code into lower level computer language.
Debugger – For the examination of the source code for errors.
Interpreters – For executing the instructions of the programming language directly.
Linkers – For combining the objects of a compiler into a single executable program.
Text Editors – For editing plain text files and provided with operating systems and software packages for changing configuration files and programming language source code.

C++, Java and Simlab are some popular programming languages. Generally Java is used for internet applications. Use of Java for business activities could be is to create websites and for other internet applications. Websites is the medium through which customers and the company contacts with each other mostly. This helps the organisation to create the website in their own and make it unique. C++ is a language of professional developers and used extensively in developing operating systems. This is much use for the software companies rather than to the normal business organisations. PHP is another language used for internet applications. There is a new class of languages which is created for the mobile phone applications. The users of the programming software to the business organisations are to create bills and receipts for the organisation.
They also use the software to create databases for the organisation to enter data and also for various other purposes throughout the organisation. They also use the software to create the mail ID for their staffs to be used with the clients or to be used for business purposes throughout the college.
Businesses should deploy the software properly and make the maximum use of it to make it more useful for the stated activities. The software’s are used to produce new solutions to the business to make the enterprise more competitive and outstanding within the other enterprises. They also help to gain real time visibility; this means that it gives a comprehensive insight into the business events, transactions, and business operations as they occur. It also helps the organisations to achieve continuous process improvement this means that it easily modify the processes to continuously meet or exceed key business objectives.