Some Other Types of Applications

Systems software

The software in this category helps the user, applications, and computer hardware to interact and function together. These applications create an environment that other programs can work in. When a computer is powered on, the first thing that is loaded into the computer’s memory are the system software applications. They’ll mostly run in the background, even if some of them can have a visual user interface. Because these programs work directly with the computer’s hardware, they are often referred to as low-level software.

The most well-known type of application we find in this category is the operating system. Operating systems let other software run and take care of the direct communication with the hardware.

The most well-known operating systems for desktop computers and laptops are the following:

• Microsoft Windows
• macOS and macOS X (for Apple devices)
• Linux

For smartphones and tablets, we have the following operating systems:

• Android
• iOS (for Apple devices)
• Microsoft Windows Mobile

Programming software

In this category, we find the tools and applications used by programmers when they write and test software. First, we need the programs that are the actual language the programmers use. To be able to write a program in C++, Java, Python, or any other language, we must first install the software that will take care of the translation of the source code into machine code.

A programmer often uses specialized text editors that will assist them when writing code. Some programs are even more advanced and will provide not only an editor for writing the code but a range of other built-in tools that are useful to have access to when writing programs. These are called Integrated Development Environments (IDEs). An example of a built-in tool is a debugger, which is a program that will help the programmer find errors in their code.

Serverless applications