Main index

Introducing UNIX and Linux

The Computing Environment

Overview
What is a Computer?
Hardware
      Processors
      Input Devices
      Output Devices
Software
      Input and Characters
            Control Characters
      Application Programs
            Programming Languages
      The Operating System
      System Administration
History of UNIX and Linux
Conventions
Summary

Application Programs

As mentioned earlier, the hardware alone is not enough. To do anything useful with a computer, you need to run software, or programs, on the hardware. Programs can be used to do pretty much anything you want, but commonly including word-processing, scientific calculations, games, and even to support the development of yet more programs. What is important to note here is that for each different application, you need a different application program to run on the computer. Thus, if you want to do some word-processing, you'll need to get a word-processing program to execute; word-processing can't be done directly by the computer otherwise.