Communication devices include all those products that are used for the purpose of transmitting data from one electrical component to the other with aid of either hard wire or through wireless technology. In the beginning, during the late 1950s and 1960s, the only available long distance communications device was the telephone line. However, Communication media is the physical material through which data travels from one point to another. Radio, television, satellites and telephone lines are some examples of communication media.
An Operating System, or OS, is a software program that enables the computer hardware to communicate and operate with the computer software. Without a computer Operating System, a computer would be useless.
OPERATING SYSTEM TYPES
As computers have progressed and developed so have the types of operating systems. Below is a basic list of the different types of operating systems and a few examples of Operating Systems that fall into each of the categories. Many computer Operating Systems will fall into more than one of the below categories.
GUI - Short for Graphical User Interface, a GUI Operating System contains graphics and icons and is commonly navigated by using a computer mouse. See our GUI dictionary definition for a complete definition. Below are some examples of GUI Operating Systems.
System 7.x Windows 98 Windows CE
Multi-user - A multi-user Operating System allows for multiple users to use the same computer at the same time and/or different times. See our multi-user dictionary definition for a complete definition for a complete definition. Below are some examples of multi-user Operating Systems.
Linux UNIX Windows 2000
Multiprocessing - An Operating System capable of supporting and utilizing more than one computer processor. Below are some examples of multiprocessing Operating Systems.
Linux UNIX Windows 2000
Multitasking - An Operating system that is capable of allowing multiple software processes to run at the same time. Below are some examples of multitasking Operating Systems.
UNIX Windows 2000
Multithreading - Operating systems that allow different parts of a software program to run concurrently. Operating systems that would fall into this category are:
Linux UNIX Windows 2000
Application software is a subclass of computer software that employs the capabilities of a computer directly to a task that the user wishes to perform. This should be contrasted with system software which is involved in integrating a computer's various capabilities, but does not directly apply them in the performance of tasks that benefit the user.
A simple, if imperfect, analogy in the world of hardware would be the relationship of an electric light - an application - to an electric power generation plant - the system. The power plant merely generates electricity, itself not really of any use until harnessed to an application like the electric light which performs a service that the user desires.
Typical examples of software application are word processors, spreadsheets and media players.
Multiple applications bundled together as a package are sometimes referred to as an application suite. Microsoft Office, which bundles together a word processor, a spreadsheet, and several other discrete applications, is a typical example. The separate applications in a suite usually have a user interface that has some commonality making it easier for the user to learn and use each application. And often they may have some capability to interact with each other in ways beneficial to the user. For example a spreadsheet might be able to be embedded in a word processor document even though it had been created in the separate word processor application.
In some types of embedded systems, the application software and the operating system software may be indistinguishable to the user, as in the case of software used to control a VCR, DVD player or Microwave oven.
List of software applications
Some examples of application software include:
Accounting packages collaborative software compilers and interpreters computer games cryptography database Educational Software e-mail graphics program spreadsheet text editor web browser web server word processor
