1. What are main differences/distinction between system software and application software?
Systems software: is a set of instructions that serves primarily as a intermediary between computer hardware and application programs. Systems software provides important sef regulatory functions for computers, such as loading itself when the computer is first turned on and providing commonly used sets of instructions for all applications. Systems programming refers to both the creation and maintenance of systems software.
Application software: is a set of computer instructions that provide more specific functionality to a user. That functionality may be broad, such as general word processing, or narrow, such as an organisation’s payroll program. Essentially, an application program applies a computer to a certain need. Application programming refers to both the creation and modification and improvement of application software. Application software may be propriety or off-the-shelf.
2. What are the two main types of system software?
System Control Programs: control use of the hardware, software and data resources if a computer system. The main system control program is a operating system (OS). The OS supervises the overall operation of the computer. THE OS manages the program/s (also called jobs or tasks) running on the processor at a given time. OS systems provide various types of program management, such as multitasking, multithreading, and multiprocessing.
System Support Programs: support the operations, management, and users of a computer system by providing a variety of support services. E.g. system utility programs, performance monitors and security monitors.
3. What is the difference between proprietary and open source software? What considerations should be made when a business selects either software?
Propriety application software addresses a company’s specific or unique business need. This type of software may be developed in-house by the organisation’s information systems personnel, or it may be commissioned from a software vendor.
Open source software is software whose source code is available at no cost to developers or users.
4. What are some of the legal issues involved in acquiring and using software in most businesses/organizations?
-Software licensing is an issue for organisations. Copying software is illegal. As the number of desktop computers continues to increase and businesses continue to decentralise, it becomes more and more difficult for IS managers to supervise their software assets.
5. What is meant by SaaS? Name some examples of this software.
Software-as-a-Service (SaaS): is a method of delivering software in which a vendor hosts the applications. Customers access these applications over a network, typically the internet. Customers don’t own the software but pay for using it. E.g. Google Apps Premier Edition, which icludes Desktop, Docs and Speraadsheets, Base and Calander, is competing with Microsft Office in office productivity applications.
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