Week 1 – Introduction to Information Technology

Section 1: What is an Information System? ..........................................................................................2

Data...................................................................................................................................................................... 2
Processing ............................................................................................................................................................ 2
Information .......................................................................................................................................................... 2
What is a computer? ............................................................................................................................................ 3
The Components of Information Systems ........................................................................................................... 3
Computer Characteristics..................................................................................................................................... 6
Section 2 – Hardware ...............................................................................................................................7
System Unit ......................................................................................................................................................... 8
Input Devices ....................................................................................................................................................... 9
Output Devices .................................................................................................................................................... 9
Storage devices ................................................................................................................................................... 10
Section 3 – Software ...............................................................................................................................12
Operating Systems .............................................................................................................................................. 12
File Management and Hard Disk ........................................................................................................................ 13
The File Manager:........................................................................................................................................... 13
Hard Disk ........................................................................................................................................................ 14
Microsoft Windows ............................................................................................................................................ 15
Getting Started with Windows ........................................................................................................................ 16
Navigating the desktop ................................................................................................................................... 16
Application Software .......................................................................................................................................... 17
Application Software Categories .................................................................................................................... 17
Section 4 – Systems Software vs. Application Software .....................................................................19
System Software ................................................................................................................................................. 19
Application Software .......................................................................................................................................... 19
References: ..............................................................................................................................................21

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 WEEK 1 – Introduction to Information Technology

Section 1: What is an Information System?

According to some textbooks (mentioned in the references section):

 Information systems are combinations of hardware, software, and
telecommunications networks that people build and use to collect, create, and
distribute useful data, typically in organizational settings. [2]

 Information systems are interrelated components working together to collect,
process, store, and disseminate information to support decision making,
coordination, control, analysis, and visualization in an organization. [3]

In order to be provided with Information we need to acquire the appropriate data.

Data
 Data, we call raw facts and figures. Facts and figures with not actual meaning in some
 cases, which need to be sorted or calculated.
  Raw data is a term used to describe data in its most basic digital format.
  The sorting and calculation of data is called data processing.
 When data is processed, it provides information.

Processing
Is the manipulation of input data using an application program to obtain desired output as an audio,
video, graphic, numeric, or text data file.

Information
  Is the meaning we attach to the actual data.
 The information that may be obtained from data depends on the way that the data is
 interpreted and the context in which it is used.
  For instance, the number 260198, we could interpret this in any number of ways.
For example, it may be your video club membership number, the date (for example 26th
January 1998), or even the number of cars going down a certain road in a week.

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 The three stages of doing tasks:

What is a computer?
 Computer is an electronic device that is programmed to accept data, process data into
 useful information and store it for later use.
  Computer consists of hardware and software.
  Software is a set of instructions that tells a computer what to do.
  Hardware is the physical part of a computer. For example, keyboard, mouse etc.
 Finally, computer is the relationship between hardware and software.

Examples and types of computers are: Desktop Computers, Laptops, Netbooks, Hybrid, Tablets,
Smartphones and supercomputers (many computers connected together).

The Components of Information Systems

There are five components of Information Systems, those are:
1. Hardware
- System Unit
- Input Devices
- Output Devices
- Storage Devices
2. Software
- Operating Systems
- Application Software
3. Data
4. People
5. Process

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 The first three, fitting under the category of technology and the last two, people and process, are really
what separate the idea of information systems from more technical fields, such as computer science.
In order to fully understand information systems, we must understand how all of these components
work together.

1. Hardware
Hardware is all the physical components of the technology, is the part of an information
system you can touch. Examples of hardware are: Computers (mobile computers and Desktop
Computers), keyboards, disk drives, iPads, flash drives, etc. In section 2 we will examine more
thoroughly the hardware components: the System Unit, the Input Devices, the Output Devices
and the Storage Devices.

2. Software
Software is a set of instructions that tells the hardware what to do. Software it cannot be
touched. When programmers create software programs, what they are really doing is simply
typing out lists of instructions that tell the hardware what to do.

There are several categories of software, with the two main categories being:
i) Operating-system software, which makes the hardware usable.
ii) Application software, which does something useful.

Examples of operating systems include Microsoft Windows or MAC OS on a personal

computer and Google’s Android or IOS on a mobile phone.
Examples of application software are Microsoft Excel and Angry Birds. We will further
explore the software component in section 3.

3. Data
The third component is data. You can think of data as a collection of facts. For example, your
street address, the city you live in, and your phone number are all pieces of data. Like
software, data is also intangible.
The data alone are not really very useful, but aggregated, indexed, and organized together into
a database, data can become a powerful tool for in any situation. In fact, all of the definitions
presented at the chapter focused on how information systems manage data.
By collecting all kinds of data and using them to make decisions, we then can analyse their
effectiveness and the how they can help us to improve.

4. People
When thinking about information systems, it is easy to get focused on the technology
components and forget that we must look beyond these tools to fully understand how
they integrate into an organization. People are involved in information systems in just
about every way you can think of. For instance, people
imagine information systems, people develop information systems, people support
information systems, and, perhaps most importantly, people use information systems.

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 Using the user interface software, a person can give commands to all of the
systems components. Some people that are involved with Information Systems are:

 System Analyst  Computer Operator

 Programmers  Database Administrator
 Computer Engineers,  Help-Desk/Support Analyst
 Trainer  Functional Manager
 Project Managers  Etc.

Career Paths in Information Systems

Working with information systems can be a rewarding career choice.
Whether you want to be involved in very technical jobs (programmer,
database administrator), or you want to be involved in working with people
(systems analyst, trainer), there are many different career paths available.

In many cases, those proficient in technical skills are not gifted with managerial
skills. Some organizations, especially those that highly value their technically
skilled employees, will create a technical track that exists in parallel to the
management track so that they can retain employees who are contributing to the
organization with their technical skills.

Let’s take for example System Analyst and talk a little bit about his/her job description and
duties. Computer Systems Analysts, study an organization’s current computer systems and
procedures and design information systems solutions to help the organization operate more
efficiently and effectively. They bring business and information technology (IT) together
by understanding the needs and limitations of both.

Some of their duties are:

  Consult with managers to determine the role of the IT system in an organization.
 Research emerging technologies to decide if installing them can increase the organization’s
 efficiency and effectiveness.
 Prepare an analysis of costs and benefits so that management can decide if information
 systems and computing infrastructure upgrades are financially worthwhile.
  Devise ways to add new functionality to existing computer systems.
 Design and develop new systems by choosing and configuring hardware and software.

5. Process
A process is a series of steps undertaken to achieve the outcome we want or goal. Information
systems are becoming more and more integrated with organizational processes, bringing more
productivity and better control to those processes. But simply automating activities using
technology is not enough. Businesses are looking to effectively utilize information systems to
do more. Using technology to manage and improve processes, both within a company and
externally with suppliers and customers, is the ultimate goal.

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 Computer Characteristics

 Speed: When we say speed, we talking about the time needed to solve a complex problem.
In general, no human being can compete to solving the complex computation, faster than
computer.

 Accuracy: mean that every calculation result coming from a computer is always accurate.
 Since computer is programmed, so whatever input we give it gives result with accurately.
  Storage: computer can store mass storage of data with appropriate format.
 Diligence: Humans cannot work for ours without breaks or errors. In the other hand, computer
 can work for hours without any break and creating error.
  Versatility: we can use computer to perform completely different type of work at the same time.
  Memory: it can remember data for us.
  Logical: computer does not work without instruction, are stupid machines.
 Reliability: computer does not have emotions, knowledge, experience, and feeling.

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 Section 2 – Hardware

As we learned in the first section, when we talking about the Hardware, we referring to the physical
parts of a computing device, parts that you can actually touch. In this section, we will look further
at these components to learn a little bit about how it works.

Bits and Bytes – The Language of Computers

Digital devices process electronic signals that represent either

a one (on) or a zero (off). The on state is represented by the
presence of an electronic signal, whereas the off state is
represented by the absence of an electronic signal.

 Each one or zero is referred to as a bit.


 A group of eight bits is a byte.

The first personal computers could process 8 bits of data at

once; modern PCs can now process 64 bits of data at a time,
which is where the term 64-bit processor comes from.
As the capacities of digital devices grew, new terms were developed to identify the capacities of
processors, memory, and disk storage space.

Prefixes were applied to the word byte to represent different orders of magnitude.

Since these are digital specifications, the prefixes were originally meant to represent multiples of 1024,
but have more recently been rounded to mean multiples of 1000.

A Listing of Binary Prefixes

Prefix Represents Example
kilo one thousand kilobyte=one thousand bytes
mega one million megabyte=one million bytes
giga one billion gigabyte=one billion bytes
tera one trillion terabyte=one trillion bytes

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 System Unit
Processing Data: The CPU

Most computing devices have a similar architecture. The core of this architecture is the central
processing unit, or CPU. The CPU can be thought of as the “brains” of the device. The CPU carries
out the commands sent to it by the software and returns results to be acted upon.
  The earliest CPUs were large circuit boards with limited functionality.
 Today, a CPU is generally on one chip and can perform a large
 variety of functions.
  The speed (“clock time”) of a CPU is measured in hertz.
  A hertz is defined as one cycle per second.
  Using the binary prefixes, we can see that a kilohertz (abbreviated kHz)
is one thousand cycles per second, a megahertz (mHz) is one million cycles per second, and
 a gigahertz (gHz) is one billion cycles per second.
  The CPU’s processing power is increasing at an amazing rate. Besides a faster clock time, many
CPU chips now contain multiple processors per chip. These chips nowadays exist in a large
scale, the scale includes chips known as dual-core (two processors), quad-core (four processors),
i3 core, i5 core, i7 core up to i9 core. By providing the capability of multiple CPUs processing,
the processing power of the computer increase.

Motherboard

The motherboard is the main circuit board on the computer. The CPU,
memory, and storage components, among other things, all connect into the
motherboard. Motherboards come in different shapes and sizes, depending
upon how compact or expandable the computer is designed to be. Most
modern motherboards have many integrated components, such as video and
sound processing, which used to require separate components.
The motherboard provides much of the bus of the computer (the term bus
refers to the electrical connection between different computer components).
The bus is an important determiner of the computer’s speed:
the combination of how fast the bus can transfer data and the number of data bits that can be moved
at one time determine the speed.

Random-Access Memory - RAM

When a computer starts up, it begins to load information from the hard disk into its working memory.
This working memory, called random-access memory (RAM), can transfer data much faster than
the hard disk.
Any program that you are running on the computer is loaded into
RAM for processing. In order for a computer to work effectively,
some minimal amount of RAM must be installed. In most cases,
adding more RAM will allow the computer to run faster.

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 Another characteristic of RAM is that it is “volatile.” This means that it can store data as long as it
is receiving power. When the computer is turned off, any data stored in RAM is lost.

RAM is generally installed in a personal computer through the use of a dual-inline memory module
(DIMM). The type of DIMM accepted into a computer is dependent upon the motherboard. As
described by Moore’s Law, the amount of memory and speeds of DIMMs have increased
dramatically over the years.

Input Devices

All computers need components that allow the user to input data. Early computers used simply
a keyboard to allow the user to enter data or select an item from a menu to run a program.
With the advent of the graphical user interface, the mouse became a standard component of a
computer. These two components are still the primary input devices to a personal computer, though
variations of each have been introduced with varying levels of success over the years.

Some examples of input devices are:

  Touch Screens
  Trackball
  Game Controller
 Scanners, which allow users to input documents into a
 computer, either as images or as text.
 Microphones can be used to record audio or give
 voice commands.
 Webcams and other types of video cameras can be used
to record video or participate in a video chat session.

Output Devices

Output devices are essential as well. The most obvious output device is a display, visually
representing the state of the computer. In some cases, a personal computer can support multiple
displays or be connected to larger-format displays such as a projector or large-screen television.

Besides displays, other output devices include:

  Speakers and headsets for audio output.
  Printers for printed output.
 Projectors, etc.

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 However, there are cases that a device can also be an output and input device at the same time. Those
devices can perform both input AND output operations referred as I/O (input/output) devices and their
operations are called I/O operations. These devices are: the digital camera, touch screen, Webcam,
Fax, USB Drive, CD/DVD, modem.

Storage devices

Hard Disk and Solid-State Drive (SSD)

While the RAM is used as working memory, the computer also needs a place to store data for the
longer term. Most of today’s personal computers use a hard disk for long-term
data storage. A hard disk is where data is stored when the computer is
turned off and where it is retrieved from when the computer is turned on.

Why is it called a hard disk?

Because hard disk consists of a stack of disks inside a hard metal case.

Solid-State Drives
A more common component in some personal computers is the solid-state
drive (SSD). The SSD performs the same function as a hard disk: long-term storage. Instead of spinning
disks, the SSD uses flash memory, which is much faster.
SSDs are primarily utilized in portable computers, making them lighter and more efficient. Some
computers combine the two storage technologies, using the SSD for the most accessed data (such as
the operating system) while using the hard disk for data that is accessed less frequently.

Removable Media
Besides fixed storage components, removable storage media are also used in most personal computers.
Removable media allows you to take your data with you. And just as with all other digital
technologies, these media have gotten smaller and more powerful as the years have gone by. Early
computers used floppy disks, which could be inserted into a disk drive in the computer.

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 Around the turn of the century, a new portable storage technology was being developed: the USB
flash drive (more about the USB port later in the chapter). This device attaches to the universal serial
bus (USB) connector, which became standard on all personal computers beginning in the late 1990s.
As with all other storage media, flash drive storage capacity has skyrocketed over the years, from
initial capacities of eight megabytes to current capacities of 2TB (terabytes) and still growing.

The Back and Front panel of a personal Computer

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 Section 3 – Software

The second component of an information system is Software. We can say that Software is the set of
instructions that tell the hardware what to do. Software is created through the process of
programming. Without software, the hardware would not be functional.

Software can be broadly divided into two categories:

1. Operating Systems manage the hardware and create the interface between the hardware and
the user.
2. Application Software is the category of programs that do something useful for the user.

Operating Systems
The operating system provides several essential functions, including:
a. managing the hardware resources of the computer;
b. providing the user-interface components;
c. providing a platform for software developers to write
d. applications

Historical Facts
  The most popular of the early operating systems was IBM’s Disk
 Operating System (DOS), which was actually developed for them by Microsoft.
 In 1984, Apple introduced the Macintosh computer, featuring an operating system with
 a graphical user interface.
 In 1985, Microsoft released the first version of Windows. This version of Windows was not an
operating system, but instead was an application that ran on top of the DOS operating system,
 providing a graphical environment. It was quite limited and had little commercial success.
  In 1990 Microsoft found success by releasing Windows 3.0.
 Since 1990, both Apple and Microsoft have released many new versions of their operating
systems, with each release adding the ability to process more data at once and access more
memory. Features such as multitasking, virtual memory, and voice input have become
standard features of both operating systems.

For personal computers, the most popular operating systems are Microsoft’s Windows, Apple’s OS,
and different versions of Linux.

Smartphones and tablets run operating systems as well, such as Apple’s iOS, Google’s
Android, Microsoft’s Windows Mobile, and Blackberry.

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 The third personal computer operating system is called Linux. Linux was
developed by Linus Torvalds. He wanted to create a cheaper version of UNIX
operating system which at the time was very expensive software. UNIX was
primarily used by scientists and engineers on larger expensive computers.
Linux has many variations and now powers a large percentage of web servers
in the world. It is also an example of open-source software.

Open-source software (OSS): is computer software with its source code made
available with a license in which the copyright holder provides the rights to study,
change, and distribute the software to anyone and for any purpose. Open-source software may
be developed in a collaborative public manner.
The Graphical User Interface (GUI): Represents all the program and computer resources as icons.
The workspace is represented graphically creating virtual documents. Finally, adds to the unique
nature of the computer as both a tool and a medium.

File Management and Hard Disk

From the computer’s point of view, there is no such thing as a file. It is only because the
operating system is creating the illusion of a file that they exist.
From the computer’s point of view, there is only blocks of memory, either allocated or unallocated.
The manager in the Operating System that creates the illusion that there are files and folders being
stored in computer memory is called, The File Manager (or File Management System).

The File Manager:

 Keeps track of where files are stored.  Creates a record of all file usage.
  Determines hoe the files are stored.  Allocates a file to user if this is free, and if
 Follows operating system file  they are permitted to access it.
 allocation policies.  De-allocates file when user finished with it.
 Uses available storage space efficiently
for files.

There are typical things you can do with a file, such as: create, open, delete, rename, copy, etc. The
name of the file is usually in two parts: filename and extension (figure below).

The full filename includes path information:

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 Examples of file extensions

Hard Disk

Hard disk saves files by altering the magnetic charges of the disk’s surface to represent 1s and 0s. To
retrieve data and programs, hard disks read the charges of the magnetic disk. Characters are
represented by positive and negative charges using the ASCII, EBCDIC, or Unicode binary codes. (To
learn more about ASCII, EBCDIC, or Unicode binary codes read pages 199-200 from your textbook.
For the ASCII table search the web).
  Hard Disks store data in tracks, sectors, and clusters.
 Computer operating system keep track of hard-disk sector according to the clusters.

Tracks, Sectors, and Clusters

 On the disk, data is recorded in concentric recording
 bands called tracks.
 When a disk is formatted, the disks storage locations are
divided into wedge-shaped sections, which break the
tracks into small arcs called sectors.

 When you save data from your computer to a disk, the data
 is distributed by tracks and sectors on the disk.
 The system software uses the point at which a sector
intersects a track to reference the data location.

There are three main ways a file is physically stored in memory (In brief):
1. Contiguous Storage.
2. Non-contiguous Storage.
3. Indexed Storage.

1. Contiguous Storage means that records of a file are stored one

after another. It is a very simple policy to implement, and once
you have found the start of the file, it’s very easy to find the

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 rest of it. The problem with is that if you have expanded the file, you either need to have
free space allocated at the end, or copy the whole file to a different location on the disk that
has enough space.
2. Non-contiguous Storage means that records of a file are stored where ever there is free
space. The file manager will try to put as much of it together as possible, but there will be
other part spread out over the disk. These extra bits are sometimes called extents and these are
linked together with pointers. This means there is no easy way to determine the exact location
of a record in a file.
3. Indexed Storage means that as well as the records in the
file, an index block is created, with pointers to each
individual file. This supports both sequential and direct
access to records, and for larger files there can be
multiple indexes. (figure on the right)

Microsoft Windows

As the most common operating system in the business, we are going to examine Microsoft Windows
a little further. We can say that Windows makes it possible to complete all types of everyday tasks on
your computer. For example, you can use Windows to browse the Internet, check your email, edit
digital photos, listen to music, play games, and do much more.
Windows is also used in many offices because it gives you access to productivity tools such
as calendars, word processors, and spreadsheets.
Microsoft released the first version of Windows in the mid-1980s. There have been many versions
of Windows since then, but the most recent ones include Windows 10 (released in 2015), Windows
8 (2012), Windows 7 (2009), Windows Vista (2007), and Windows XP (2001).
The versions of windows that are active at the time are Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10.
Most organizations choose to work with Windows 7 and Windows 10 as their operating systems (and
not with Windows 8) for two main reasons:
(1) Because both Windows 7 and Windows 10 have better user friendly environment.
(2) Because Windows 10 is the newer version of Windows 7 (Microsoft developed Windows 10
based on Windows 7).

In the other hand, Windows 8 provided an entirely new user interface compared to its predecessor.
This interface (initially called "Metro") displayed a collection of tiles rather than a traditional desktop
environment. A change that a big number of Windows users did not like so much, because of the hard
time they had navigating throw the interface.

So for our lecture we are going to examine Windows 10 which is the latest version of Windows and
the most common one used today within many organisations.

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 Getting Started with Windows

Signing in to Windows 10

 You will probably be asked to create a Microsoft account the very time you use Windows
 10 (if you don't have one already).
 To create an account, you will have to fill up a form with your information (Email
 address, name, age, etc.)
  From this point on, whenever you turn on the computer you'll need to sign in to that account.
 To do this, type your password into the box and press Enter.

Fig.1 Create an account menu Fig.2 Sign-In Screen

Navigating the desktop

Once you've signed in, the first thing you'll see is the desktop. You can think of the desktop as the
main workspace for your computer.

From here, you can view and manage your files, open applications, access the Internet, and much more.

1. Recycle Bin: When you delete a

file, it is moved to the Recycle Bin.
This allows you to recover the file if
you change your mind. To
permanently delete the file, you will
need to empty the Recycle Bin.
2. Folders on the desktop: You can
keep folders, files, and shortcuts
on the desktop so they'll be easily
accessible.
3. Desktop background: The desktop
background, or wallpaper, allows
you to personalize your computer.
You can choose a built-in background or use one of your own images.

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 4. Open Folders: When you double-click a folder, it will open in a specialized program called File Explorer
(also known as Windows Explorer). This allows you to navigate to the specific folder or file you want.
5. Start Menu: In most versions of Windows, you'll click the Start button to open the Start menu.
6. Shortcuts on the taskbar: Some programs will have shortcuts on the taskbar for easy access. In
this example, there are shortcuts to Microsoft Edge, File Explorer, and the Windows Store.
7. Taskbar: The taskbar contains shortcuts to applications, the date and time, and more. When you open
a program or file, it will appear on the taskbar, and you can easily switch between different programs
by selecting them on the taskbar.
8. Date and Time Settings: On the right side of the taskbar, you will see the date and time. There will also
be shortcuts to various settings, like Internet settings and sound volume.

You can practise Windows environment on yours personal computer at home.

Application Software

The second major category of software is application software. Application software is, essentially,
software that allows the user to accomplish some goal or purpose. For example, if you have to write a
paper, you might use the application-software program Microsoft Word. If you want to listen to
music, you might use iTunes. To surf the web, you might use Internet Explorer or Firefox. Even a
computer game could be considered application software.

Application Software Categories

  Productivity Software
  Specialty Software
  Entertainment Software
 Educational and Reference Software

Productivity Software

Productivity Software is called the applications that enable you to perform tasks required in
home, school, and business. Some of these applications are:

Word processing programs: This software provides for the creation of written documents. Functions
include the ability to type and edit text, format fonts and paragraphs, and add, move, and delete text
throughout the document. Word-processing programs also have the ability to add tables, images,
and various layout and formatting features to the document. Word processors save their documents
as electronic files in a variety of formats (doc, docx, pdf, xps, etc).

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 Spreadsheet programs: provides a way to do numeric calculations and analysis. The working area is
divided into rows and columns, where users can enter numbers, text, or formulas. It is the formulas
that make a spreadsheet powerful, allowing the user to develop complex calculations that can change
based on the numbers entered. Just as with word processors, many other spreadsheet packages can read
and write to this file format.

Presentation programs: provides for the creation of slideshow presentations. Presentation software allows
its users to create a set of slides that can be printed or projected on a screen. Users can add text, images,
and other media elements to the slides. Microsoft’s PowerPoint is the most popular software.

Database programs: provides for the creation of complex electronic filing systems. Database programs
have the ability to group, sort, and retrieve data and generate reports. In addition, it can organize into
fields, records and tables large number of data. An example of a database program is Windows Access.
Personal Information Manager Programs: is used to replace the management tools found on a
traditional desk. These features include: calendar, address book, notepad, to-do list and some contain
e-mail management features. Examples are: Lotus organizer and Microsoft Outlook.

Specialty Software
Specialty Software is the software needed for a specific job function such as Web page
development, document publishing, or high-end graphic design.

Entertainment software
Entertainment software is any software that supports a hobby or provides a form of amusement.
Entertainment software includes video games, videos and any other software that a user feels is
enjoyable. Many forms of entertainment software, such as videos, can be informative or educational
while also being entertaining. In fact, there are several pieces of software designed to entertain
while providing another service or experience.

Educational and Reference software

Educational software refers to software that can be used by teachers and students to support
teaching and learning. Educational software is essential in any learning environment to allow
teachers and students maximise the power of the computer. Examples are: dictionaries, atlases, test
preparation, course management, etc.

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 Section 4 – Systems Software vs. Application Software

System Software

Firstly, System Software is the software that is written in a low-level language, like assembly
language. The main purpose of System Software is to take care of memory management, process
management, protection and security of the system. In addition, provides the computing environment
to the other software like Application Software.

 System Software creates an interface between the hardware of the system and the user. It
 helps the systems understand the commands entered by the user.
  Acts as an interface between Application Software and hardware.
 The System Software start running when the system is turned on and manages all the
resources of the system and it runs till the system is turned off.

Concluding, the System Software is general purpose software and is essential for the working of the
computer. Generally, the end user does not interact with the System Software directly. The user
interacts with the Graphic User Interface (GUI) created by the System Software. An example of
System Software is Operating System.

Application Software

Application Software is software written in a high-level language like Java, VB, .net, etc. Application
Software is user specific and is design to meet the requirements of the user. It may be computing
software, editing software, designing software, etc. In few words, each Application Software is
designed for a specific purpose.

  The Application Software runs on the platform created by the System Software.
  Application Software is an intermediary between the end user and System Software.
  You can install multiple Application Software on a System Software.
 Application Software is not essential to run a system, but it makes the system useful.

The examples for Application Software are MS Office, Photoshop, etc.

Conclusion:
Both, the System Software and the Application Software together make a system useful for the end
user. The System Software is compulsory for the system to work. Similarly, the Application Software
is necessary for the user to perform their specific task.

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 To summarize, below we have some differences between Systems Software and Application Software.

System Software Application Software

System software is used for operating computer Application software is used by user to perform
hardware. specific task.
System software is installed on the computer when Application software is installed according to
operating system is installed. user’s requirements.
In general, the user does not interact with system In general, the user interacts with application
software because it works in the background. software.
System software can run independently. It Application software can’t run independently.
provides platform for running application They can’t run without the presence of system
software. software.
Some examples of system software are compiler, Some examples of application software are word
assembler, debugger, driver, etc. processor, web browser, media player, etc.

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 References:

O'Leary, Timothy, & O'Leary, Linda, & O'Leary, Daniel. (2015). Computing Essentials, 25th Edition.
Prentice-Hall. (2010). Information Systems Today, Managing in the Digital World, fourth edition.
Prentice-Hall. (2012). Management Information Systems, twelfth edition.
Rajaraman V. (2013). Introduction to Information Technology.
Stepbystep.(n.d). Difference between System Software and Application Software, Retrieved from
http://www.stepbystep.com/difference-between-system-software-and-application-software-96448/
Turban Efraim, & Kelly, R. R., & Richard, P. E. (2005). Introduction to Information Technology, 3rd
Edition.
Williams Brian, & Sawyer Stacey. (2015). Using Information Technology, 11th Edition.

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