System Software System software is a program that manages and supports the computer resources and operations of a computer

system while it executes various tasks such as processing data and information, controlling hardware components, and allowing users to use application software. That is, systems software functions as a bridge between computer system hardware and the application software. System software is made up of many control programs, including the operating system, communications software and database manager. There are many kinds of computers these days. Some of them are easier to learn than others. Some of them perform better than others. These differences may come from different systems software. An operating system is a collection of integrated computer programs that provide recurring services to other programs or to the user of a computer. These services consist of disk and file management, memory management, and device management. In other words, it manages CPU operations, input/output activities, storage resources, diverse support services, and controls various devices. Operating system is the most important program for computer system. Without an operating system, every computer program would have to contain instructions telling the hardware each step the hardware should take to do its job, such as storing a file on a disk. Because the operating system contains these instructions, any program can call on the operating system when a service is needed. In simplest terms, an operating system is a collection of programs that manage a computer system's internal workings its memory, processors, devices, and file system. Mainframe operating systems are sophisticated products with substantially different characteristics and purposes.

Operating systems are designed to make the best use of the computer's various resources, and ensure that the maximum amount of work is processed as efficiently as possible. Although an operating system cannot increase the speed of a computer, it can maximize use of resources, thereby making the computer seem faster by allowing it to do more work in a given period of time.

Software that manage computer hardware resources and provide services to run application software. Operating system manages CPU, memory and devices for computing. It also handles network and security. Operating System Software Mainframe Proprietary operating system for mainframes

Operating System- Server Operating system software for servers Operating System Software - PC Operating system that were developed for personal computers or workstation, such as Windows by Microsoft and Mac OS by Apple

PC Operating Systems After a PC boots, you can control it through an operating system, or OS for short. As of this writing, most non-Apple PCs run a version of Microsoft Windows or a Linux distribution. These operating systems are designed to run on various kinds of PC hardware, while Mac OS X is designed primarily for Apple hardware. An operating system is responsible for several tasks. These tasks fall into the following broad categories: Processor management -- breaks down the processor's work into manageable chunks and prioritizes them before sending them to the CPU. Memory management -- coordinates the flow of data in and out of RAM, and determines when to use virtual memory on the hard disk to supplement an insufficient amount of RAM. Device management -- provides a software-based interface between the computer's internal components and each device connected to the computer. Examples include interpreting keyboard or mouse input or adjusting graphics data to the right screen resolution. Network interfaces, including managing your Internet connection, also fall into the device management bucket. Storage management -- directs where data should be stored permanently on hard drives, solid state drives, USB drives and other forms of storage. For example, storage management tasks assist when creating, reading, editing, moving, copying and deleting documents. Application interface -- provides data exchange between software programs and the PC. An application must be programmed to work with the application interface for the operating system you're using. Applications are often designed for specific versions of an OS, too. You'll see this in the application's requirements with phrases like "Windows Vista or later," or "only works on 64-bit operating systems." User interface (UI) - provides a way for you to interact with the computer.

System Utility Software Software to help analyze, configure, optimize, and maintain computers, such as for disk management, securing data networks, backup, file management, system monitoring, network management, data encryptors, or virus protection, etc. Utility software usually focuses on how the computer infrastructure (including the computer hardware,

operating system, application software and data storage) operates. Due to this focus, utilities are often rather technical and targeted at people with an advanced level of computer knowledge - in contrast to application software, which allows users to do things like creating text documents, playing video games, listening to music or viewing websites Security Chip Cards and Tokens A small hardware device or integrated circuit card that the owner carries to authorize access to a network service. It contains a memory or microprocessor that stores and transacts data such as cryptographic keys, digital signature, biometric data, etc.. The embedded integrated circuits that can be programmed for different applications such as identification, authentication, data storage, and application processing. Some examples include smart cards, chip cards, and USB tokens. Operating Systems Software - Mobile Computing Operating system that is designed for mobile computing devices such as PDA, mobile phones, including smart phones, tablets, etc.

A mobile operating system, also referred to as mobile OS, is the operating system that operates a smartphone, tablet, PDA, or other digital mobile devices. Modern mobile operating systems combine the features of a personal computer operating system with touchscreen, cellular, Bluetooth, WiFi, GPS mobile navigation, camera, video camera, speech recognition, voice recorder, music player, Near field communication, personal digital assistant (PDA) and other features

The most common mobile operating systems are: Android from Google Inc.[4] (free and open source)[5]

Android 4.2 "Jelly Bean" on the Nexus 4 Android was developed by a small startup company (Android Inc.) that was purchased by Google Inc. in 2005, which Google has continued to update the software. Android is a Linux-derived OS backed by Google, along with major hardware and software developers (such as Intel, HTC, ARM, Samsung, Motorola and eBay, to name a few), that forms the Open Handset Alliance.[6] Released on November 5th 2007, the OS was well received from a number of developers upon its introduction.[7] Android's releases prior to 2.0 (1.0, 1.5, 1.6) were used exclusively on mobile phones. Most Android phones, and some Android tablets, now use a 2.x release. Android 3.0 was a tablet-oriented release and does not officially run on mobile phones. The current Android version is 4.1. Android's releases are nicknamed after sweets or dessert items like Cupcake (1.5), Frozen Yogurt (2.2), Honeycomb (3.0), Ice Cream Sandwich (4.0) and Jelly Bean (4.1). Most major mobile service providers carry an Android device. Since HTC Dream was introduced, there has been an explosion in the number of devices that carry Android OS. From Q2 of 2009 to the second quarter of 2010, Android's worldwide market share rose 850% from 1.8% to 17.2%. On November 15, 2011, Android reached 52.5% of the global smartphone market share.[8]

Apple's iPhone and iPad products use the iOS operating system. bada from Samsung Electronics (closed source, proprietary) This is a mobile operating system being developed by Samsung Electronics. Samsung claims that bada will rapidly replace its proprietary feature phone platform, converting feature phones to smartphones.The name 'bada' is derived from , the Korean word for ocean or sea. The first device to run bada is called 'Wave',which has a full touchscreen, was unveiled to the public at Mobile World Congress 2010. With the phone, Samsung also released an app store, called Samsung Apps, to the public. It has close to 3000[9] mobile applications. Samsung has said that they don't see Bada as a smartphone operating system, but as an OS with a kernel configurable architecture, which allows the use of either a proprietary real-time operating system, or the Linux kernel. Though Samsung plans to install bada on many phones, the company still has a large lineup of Android phones. BlackBerry OS from BlackBerry (closed source, proprietary) This OS is focused on easy operation and was originally designed for business. Recently it has seen a surge in third-party applications and has been improved to offer full multimedia support. Currently Blackberry's App World has over 50,000 downloadable applications. Blackberry's future strategy will focus on the newly acquired QNX, having already launched the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet running a version of QNX and expecting the first QNX smartphones in early 2012.[10] iOS from Apple Inc.[4] (closed source, proprietary, on top of open source Darwin core OS) The Apple iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and second-generation Apple TV all use an operating system called iOS, which is derived from Mac OS X. Native third party applications were not officially supported until the release of iOS 2.0 on July 11th 2008. Before this, "jailbreaking" allowed third party applications to be installed, and this method is still available. Currently all iOS devices are developed by Apple and manufactured by Foxconn or another of Apple's partners.

Operating System Software - Unix & Similar Operating software that is based on open source codes, originated by Unix. The operating sytem is assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution, such as Linux.

UNIX and UNIX-like operating systems Evolution of Unix systems Main article: Unix Unix was originally written in assembly language.[5] Ken Thompson wrote B, mainly based on BCPL, based on his experience in the MULTICS project. B was replaced by C, and Unix, rewritten in C, developed into a large, complex family of inter-related operating systems which have been influential in every modern operating system (see History). The UNIX-like family is a diverse group of operating systems, with several major sub-categories including System V, BSD, and Linux. The name "UNIX" is a trademark of The Open Group which licenses it for use with any operating system that has been shown to conform to their definitions. "UNIX-like" is commonly used to refer to the large set of operating systems which resemble the original UNIX. Unix-like systems run on a wide variety of computer architectures. They are used heavily for servers in business, as well as workstations in academic and engineering environments. Free UNIX variants, such as Linux and BSD, are popular in these areas. Four operating systems are certified by the The Open Group (holder of the Unix trademark) as Unix. HP's HP-UX and IBM's AIX are both descendants of the original System V Unix and are designed to run only on their respective vendor's hardware. In contrast, Sun Microsystems's Solaris Operating System can run on multiple types of hardware, including x86 and Sparc servers, and PCs. Apple's OS X, a replacement for Apple's earlier (non-Unix) Mac OS, is a hybrid kernel-based BSD variant derived from NeXTSTEP, Mach, and FreeBSD. Unix interoperability was sought by establishing the POSIX standard. The POSIX standard can be applied to any operating system, although it was originally created for various Unix variants.

Virtualization Software Software that virtualizes hardware or software to allocate resources to the needs of each user. It allows multiple operating systems run in a host computer with the appearance of full access to the underlying system hardware.

Virtualization, in computing, is the creation of a virtual (rather than actual) version of something, such as a hardware platform, operating system (OS), storage device, or network resources.[1] Virtualization can be viewed as part of an overall trend in enterprise IT that includes autonomic computing, a scenario in which the IT environment will be able to manage itself based on perceived activity, and utility computing, in which computer processing power is seen as a utility that clients can pay for only as needed. The usual goal of virtualization is to centralize administrative tasks while improving scalability and overall hardware-resource utilization. With virtualization, several operating systems can be run in parallel on a single central processing unit (CPU). This parallelism tends to reduce overhead costs and differs from multitasking, which involves running several programs on the same OS. Using virtualization, an enterprise can better manage updates and rapid changes to the operating system and applications without disrupting the user. "Ultimately, virtualization dramatically

improves the efficiency and availability of resources and applications in an organization. Instead of relying on the old model of one server, one application that leads to under utilized resource, virtual resources are dynamically applied to meet business needs without any excess fat" (ConsonusTech).

Middleware Software or platform that enables communication between software and the network or between the client and server. It is the software layer that lies between the operating system and applications on each side of a distributed computing system in a network. Examples include internet protocol television (IPTV) middleware, etc.