Week 4: Technology Guide 2

Technology Guide 2: Computer Software

1. Software consists of computer programs that control the functions of computer hardware. There are two main types of software:

1. Systems software
2. Application software

Systems software manages the hardware resources of the computer software; it functions between the hardware and the application software. Examples of systems software include system control programs and system support programs. In comparison, application software allows users to perform specific tasks and information processing activities.

2. The two main types of systems software are:

1. System control programs - they control use of the hardware, software and data resources of a computer system.
2. System support programs - support the operations, management and users of a computer system by providing a variety of support services.

3. Application software that addresses a company’s particular or unique business need is known as proprietary application software. However, open source software is software whose source code is available at no cost to developers or users. When choosing either one of these softwares, businesses need to take into consideration the advantages and disadvantages each software poses and which one is best suited for the situation of use.

4. Software licensing is one of the legal issues that organisations face. The copyright of software is illegal. Software vendors have their software copyrighted to protect it from being copied. Therefore, businesses must license vendor-developed software to use it.

5.

• Solaris is a UNIX-based operating system introduced by Sun Microsystems in 1992 as the successor to SunOS.
• Source mode is mixed opem/closed source
• It's latest stable release was 5 months ago

• Supported programs - SPARC
• Default user interface - Java Deskop System or CDE
• Solaris' source code (with a few exceptions) has been released under the Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL) via the Open Solaris project

FEATURES:

• Solaris Operating System uses UFS as its primary file system.
• Solaris can be installed from physical media or a network for use on a desktop or server.
• Solaris can be interactively installed from a text console on platforms without a video display and mouse. This may be selected for servers, in a rack, in a remote data center, from a terminal server or even dial up modem.
• Solaris can be interactively installed from a graphical console. This may be selected for personal workstations or laptops, in a local area, where a console may normally be used.
• Solaris can be automatically installed over a network. System administrators can customize installations with scripts and configuration files, including configuration and automatic installation of third-party software, without purchasing additional software management utilities.
• When Solaris is installed, the operating system will reside on the same system where the installation occurred. Applications may be individually installed on the local system, or can be mounted via the network from a remote system.
  Additional information (SUN- Solaris): http://www.sun.com/software/solaris/