Application Software and System Software

Application software and System Software both are the software applications that are designed to perform a particular task. They can be used as standalone programs or embedded in other programs i.e. as plugins. An application is provided for a specific purpose whereas system software is more versatile and may work with other applications as well.

Application Software and System Software Abbreviations:

AS – Application Software

SS – System Software

What is Application Software?

An Application Software is a software that is designed for a specific purpose i.e. a single function such as web browsers, email client, word processors, text editors etc.

Functions of Application Software:

Application software performs specific functions for a user. These are the example functions:

1. Personal Information Managements Software
2. Email Client Software
3. Operating Systems Software
4. Web Browsers
5. Office Suites Software
6. Text Editors Software 
7. Scientific and Numeric Calculators Software etc.

Significance of Application Software:

Application software is versatile in nature e.g. it is capable of working with other applications as well. For example, UITableView conforms to the UITableViewDelegate protocol object. An application may have a plugin that can be added by dragging the plugin and dropping in the application. The Objective-C runtime will instantiate and load the object specified by its name using the class prefix, followed by interface name and implementation name (e.g. NSString+UITableViewDelegate+implementation).

Application Software Examples:

1. Web Browsers: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Edge
2. Email Clients: Microsoft Outlook, Apple Mail and Mozilla Thunderbird
3. Word Processors: Microsoft Word and Apple Pages
4. Image Editors: Adobe Photoshop and GIMP
5. Text Editors: Notepad++ and Atom Text Editor
6. Database Management Systems: Microsoft Access and FileMaker Pro

What is System Software?

System Software on the other hand are those software applications that are designed to perform multiple tasks i.e. not single function such as operating systems, OS utilities, device drivers etc.

Functions of System  Software:

System software performs various tasks to support an application. The following are the list of examples:

1. Operating Systems Software
2. Office Suites Software
3. Browsers Plugins
4. System Administration Utilities
5. Device Drivers etc.

Significance of System Software:

System software is less versatile than application software in nature, i.e. they can not be used with other applications but can only support an application that is designed for the system software. For example, the Microsoft SQL Server instance will only run within Windows Server and not in MAC or Linux operating systems.

System Software Examples:

1. Microsoft Windows: Microsoft Windows 10, Microsoft Windows 7, Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows XP and previous versions of the operating system
2. Apple macOS: Apple macOS Sierra, Apple macOS High Sierra and previous versions of the operating system
3. Linux Distributions: Ubuntu Linux 17.10 (Artful Aardvark), Linux Mint 18 (Sarah), Elementary OS 0.4 Loki and previous versions of Linux distributions 
4. Java Platform: Oracle Java Platform Standard Edition and Oracle Java Advanced Edition
5. Apache OpenOffice: Apache OpenOffice 4.1 and previous versions of the software
6. Microsoft Exchange Server : Microsoft Exchange Server 2013, 2016, 2017 and 2018
7. Adobe Flash Player: Adobe Flash Player 11.2, Adobe Flash Player 11.1, Adobe Flash Player 10 and previous versions of the software 
8. Mozilla Firefox: Mozilla Firefox 55, Mozilla Firefox 54 and previous versions of the browser

Difference Between Application Software and System Software?

There are many differences between application software and system software but the only major difference between them is that an application software is used for a specific purpose whereas a system software is versatile in nature. Some other differences between application software and system software are:

1) System software applications which are designed for a single function are commonly known as Application Software. But System software applications which are versatile in nature are known as System Software.

2) Application software is installed on a specific machine whereas system software can be installed on multiple machines simultaneously.

3) An application software i.e. an application may be run by a single computer or multiple computers simultaneously whereas system software can run on multiple computers simultaneously through different types of media such as CD, DVD, USB etc.

4) An application software may be used by one user simultaneously whereas a system software can be used by multiple users simultaneously.

5) An application software is installed locally on a machine whereas system software is installed globally on the computer also called a server or client machine.

6) An application software uses memory space in a local machine but system software may use memory space in both client and server machines.

7) An application software is designed for a specific function. e.g. web browsers, email client, operating system etc. System software on the other hand is a group of multiple software applications with similar functions (a single function) such as operating systems like Microsoft Windows 10, Apple Mac OS X 10.11 and Linux distributions etc.

Conclusion:

System Software and Application Software are both essential components of the computer system. System software assists application software to perform specific functions while application software assists system software to perform multiple tasks.