Neon-komputadór

Applications Software

The distinction between operating systems and applications can be more than a little bit fuzzy and some computer experts prefer to lump the whole lot together with the term 'utilities'. There are some very good reasons for this. As computer software technologies have developed what would have considered to be a top-of-the-range application fifteen or twenty years ago now looks like a low-end serious computer utility. Anyone who does any coding in xhtml knows how similar so many of the basic features are to 1970s and early 1980s word processing applications. The problem exists basically because when it comes down to it, most of the utilities that one finds bundled in an operating system are in fact applications insofar that they operated on the Application and upper layers of network protocols (which we'll find more about in the next chapter).

However for the purposes of this discussion and this manual, a somewhat artificial distinction will be made between operating system utilities and applications. Utilities will be described as those programs which assist in the management, maintenance and manipulation of files and are primarily designed for use within the computer system itself. Applications will be defined as those programs whose results are primarily designed for use outside the computer system itself. Applications within this definition include word processing packages, spreadsheets, database management programs, presentation software, electronic mail systems, web browsers and games. Whilst applications software will be dealt with in detail in Chapter IV, it is worthwhile to briefly comment on two major packages at this stage.

Microsoft Office Suite

The Standard Microsoft Office suite comes with Word, a word processor, Excel, a spreadsheet, Outlook, an personal information manager and email client, and PowerPoint, a presentation program. The Professional suite includes Access, a database program and Developers package includes FrontPage for website creation and management, SharePoint, for website development and Developer Tools. The retail prices of the packages are, at the time that this was written, $239 for Office Standard, $329 for Professional and $549 for Developer.

Open Office Suite

OpenOffice is a suite of applications which have been derived from the StarOffice suite. Open Office is an open source suite of application programs, all written with in the C++ programming language and orientated towards XML-based file formats. Open Office includes a Write, a word processor, Calc, a spreadsheet application, Impress!, a presentation tool and a drawing program. It is similar to other GUI application suites and is capable of reading MS-Office suite files. It is freely distributable.