Software is eating the world

Software is eating the world. (Marc Andreesson)

Software comes in various flavours. There is the OS, the middleware and the applications. There is a host of other software falling into categories like utilities, plug-ins, games etc. Software has the following characteristics:

• It works on top of hardware. Thus hardware is a must.
• Software has a personality.
• Deep down it’s a bunch of zeroes and ones.

Here are some varieties:

The know it all

This kind of software is the one which chases the holy grail. The best example is Windows 10 which claims to work on all kinds of devices (hardware). That is as far as the OS is concerned. In applications, it would be ERP, which claims to work for the entire organization. These software tries to keep up to the integration challenge.

The specialist

This is a niche seeker. For example, Salesforce.com which is a CRM software. These software solve a single problem of an individual, a department or the organization. Most of the software in the market follow this model.

The change seeker

These kind of software keeps on getting updated with changes which are frequent in nature, say in days and weeks. Good example would be OS’s which keeps releasing patches or anti-virus software which keeps updating its signature list.

The leader

The software in this category aims at a leadership position. The no. 1 database software is ORACLE which until now did not have a contender. Another example would be Wordpress, which seems to vie for the position of blogging leader.

The follower

For a particular category of software, there are many followers. For instance, blogger and tumblr are followers of Wordpress in the blogging world. ORACLE ERP is a follower to SAP. SugarCRM is a follower of SalesForce.

The above is just a peep into the many more kinds of software categories. Software development is both art and science, as well. The new category of self modifying software is quite eerie, as they promise a world of software which will arise without human intervention. Whatever maybe the case, we are in a world where we cannot live without software.

Best

Guru30