My brief AS ICT notes on software and types. I study ICT at AS level and the exam board is AQA.

1. SOFTWARE

2. TWO TYPES
 APPLICATION SOFTWARE
 SYSTEM SOFTWARE

3. APPLICATION SOFTWARE
 Open source
 Off the shelf
 Bespoke
 Word processing
 Spreadsheets
 Databases
 Presentation
 Video editing
 Image creations

4. OPEN SOURCE
 Usually free
 Alter source code
 Difficult for new users
 Upgrades yourself

5. OFF THE SHELF
 Buy it
 Graphical user interface (GUI)
 Help desks
 User guides
 Forums
 May not do everything you want it to do

6. BESPOKE
 Ask for something to be made
 Charge you to get help

7. SYSTEM SOFTWARE
 Operating system
 Utility systems

8. OPERATING SYSTEM
 Allows applications software to communicate with the hardware
 Graphical user interface (GUI)
 Command line

9. GRAPHICAL USER
INTERFACE
 GUI is a type of interface that
allows users to interact with
electronic devices through
graphical icons and visual
indicators such as secondary
notation, as opposed to text-
based interfaces, typed command
labels or text navigation.

10. COMMAND LINE
INTERFACE
 CLI is a user interface to a
computer's operating system or
an application in which the user
responds to a visual prompt by
typing in a command on a
specified line, receives a
response back from the system,
and then enters another
command, and so forth.

11. UTILITY SYSTEM
 Utility software is system software designed to help analyse, configure, optimize
or maintain a computer.
 Disk defragmentation
 Anti-virus
 Compression
 Zipping
 Firewalls