Computer software is a program that tells a computer what to do or enabling the user to interact with the computer, perform tasks, or operate computer hardware.
Computers would be useless without software. As most computers ship with a lot of software installed, we tend to take it for granted. Generally known as a program or an application, software includes anything that runs on a computer. Examples include operating systems, programming languages, web browsers, device drivers, databases, email programs, spreadsheets, word processors, games, utilities, movie players, and audio, music, photo, and graphics programs. Although you may know them as applications (apps), everything that you do on your smartphone or tablet device is done through software, too.
When you buy a computer, smartphone, or tablet device, it comes with software installed. Software can also be purchased through retail stores or, more commonly, purchased online and downloaded to your device over the Internet. Once downloaded, a setup program installs it. Software may be commercial, meaning that you will have to pay either a purchase or a subscription price, or it may be free.
Rarely seen today, software was once commonly acquired through a shareware program, which allowed the user to use the software without charge, but requested payment from those who found it useful. This type of marketing was made popular through computer bulletin board systems (BBS's), but it declined with the rise of the Internet.
A similar marketing scheme is offered through several software companies, who offer limited versions of their software on a trial basis. Trial software may be limited as to the amount of time that it can be used or it may be limited in what the user can do with it. The purpose of trial software is to allow a prospective user to ascertain whether the program will run on their machine and that it will do what they want it to do.
Some software is offered for free but without access to the source code. This is known as freeware.
Similar to freeware, free and open-source software is available for free, including the source code, allowing users to modify the program or view how it was created. Various open-source licenses are available.
Software plays a significant role in the global information economy, as it runs the computers, devices, and networks that enable countless products and services. Software varies from several huge programs, networked together, powering major corporations or communications networks, to digital calculators and games.
Software was available as a concept long before the hardware was developed for it to run on, and it was installed on early computers simultaneously in England and the United States. Although it is a trillion-dollar industry, the entry and exit levels are low and the costs of production are minimal. Twelve-year-olds have developed applications that have become hugely popular, and many of today's largest corporations were founded by college students who dropped out in order to secure their growing business interests. It is also an industry in which more money is invested in litigation than in production. Software products are also used to attack corporations, governments, and individuals, as well as to launch cyber warfare.
Software companies can crash as quickly as they arise, as the competition is fierce.
While most of the categories in the Computers & Internet section of this directory involve software, just as the directory itself is powered by software, the software topics that will be covered within this category, or its subcategories, includes business software, communications software, databases, graphics software, graphs, and graph analysis, as well as software intended to design and maintain websites, access the Internet, monitor search engine rankings, and other Internet utilities. Also included are office suites, software that provides simulations and other tasks for scientific interactions, and systems software. Web directories focused on software are listed in a subcategory here, as are shareware or freeware organizations or guides, although sites focused on individual shareware or freeware programs should be listed according to what they do. A subcategory for software development is here too, focusing on topics related to giving life to a program, which may include project planning, software design, configuration management, code implementation, testing, deployment, and maintenance.
Wherever a more specific category exists, a resource should be submitted to that category.
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Established in 1984, Avanquest is an international company that develops and publishes software applications for PCs, tablet devices, smartphones, and television and social networks. Its top software products are highlighted, along with its services, including sales representation, market analysis, package design, localization, quality assurance testing, product launch execution, channel marketing management, product production, order fulfillment, and returns management.
https://www.avanquest.com/
BDRSuite is a comprehensive and most cost-effective Backup and Disaster Recovery Software designed to protect Virtual Machines (VMware, Hyper-V, KVM, oVirt, Proxmox), Servers (Windows, Linux, NAS), Endpoint (Windows, Linux, Mac), SaaS Applications (Microsoft 365, Google Workspace), Cloud Workloads (AWS, Azure), and Applications & Databases (Microsoft Exchange Server, SQL Server, SharePoint, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle) from data loss and disasters.
https://www.bdrsuite.com/
Bytes Software Services: Software Licensing
Offering software licensing services in the United Kingdom for more than thirty years, Bytes Software Services maintains strategic partnerships and relationships with more than a thousand vendors, including Adobe, Citrix, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, Veritas, and VMWare, including basic, standardized, rationalized, and dynamic, each of which are highlighted here, along with software asset management services, learning and training, partner programs, and career openings.
https://www.bytes.co.uk/software/licensing
Created in 1999, Capterra is a software directory and review site. Free to users, software vendors pay Capterra when they receive web traffic directly from the site, although software vendors are listed regardless of whether they participate in the program. Software vendors may be found by keyword search or by browsing its more than seven hundred categories, sorted by the type of software a user might be looking for. Viewers are invited to submit software reviews, as well.
https://www.capterra.com/
Based in Manhattan, Kansas, CivicPlus specializes in government website design, assisting governments to optimize digital interactions for residents and staff, offering a full suite of integrated solutions, including CivicEngage Central, CivicEngage Evolve, CivicReady, CivicClerk, CivicOptimize, CivicRec, SeeClickFix, as well as webhooks, polling, and manual imports, including third-party integrations, each of which is featured here, including case studies and pricing.
https://www.civicplus.com/
Specializing in conversion utilities, CoolUtils offers software solutions for a wide range of file conversions, including audio, video, images, emails, Excel, HTML, PDF, CAD, Outlook, and others. A free online service is available for those who just have a few files to convert, but the company offers office converters, email converters, data exchange utilities, multimedia converters, Tiff and PDF applications, as well as a bundled package. Free file viewers are also available.
https://www.coolutils.com/
Founded in 1965, the Eurodata Group provides various IT services, such as cloud services, software as a service (SaaS), payroll software, and other software solutions, with the focus on commercial applications, particularly that related to company management, personnel management, and finance. Headquartered in Germany, the company has operations throughout Europe. Its products, solutions, and services are highlighted, along with career opportunities.
https://www.eurodata.de/en
GetSoapy is a software designed to help local service businesses like window cleaners, gardeners, and gutter cleaners manage and grow their operations.
https://getsoapy.com/
With locations in San Francisco, Croatia, and the Czech Republic, Golden specializes in information systems, offering a free Community plan, an Organization plan that is available by subscription, and an Enterprise plan that is available at costs negotiated with Golden. Its free plan offers access to public topic pages, AI-powered suggestions, auto-filled table cells, and following topics of interest. Fee-based plans include access to its research engine, private knowledge base, and support.
https://www.golden.com/
Available for the macOS as an online purchase or through the Mac App Store, iClip saves the contents of the user’s clipboard every time they copy plain-text, rich-text, images, files, or other content, and they can then access their clipboard history in the iClip interface. This allows users to copy multiple items before pasting them and to access content copied to their clipboard in the past. Saved content may be organized into multiple sets, and other features are listed here.
http://www.iclipapp.com/
Part of the GNU Project, LilyPond is free software, under the GNU General Public License and the GNU Free Documentation License, designed to serve as a music engraving program, producing sheet music. Its goal and features are set forth, along with examples of the product it creates, and of the real-life examples of productions, performances, and sheet music from people who have used the program, user reviews, and downloads for macOS, Windows, and Unix-type platforms.
http://lilypond.org/
Headquartered in Finland, Macecraft Software’s flagship product is its jv16 PowerTools utility software, although it also publishes a couple of registry cleaners, RegSupreme Pro and RegSupreme. Made for recent versions of the Windows operating system, its products are highlighted, including their features, pricing, and support options. Other resources include a brief history of the company, a support forum, powered by phpBB, as well as an informational blog.
https://jv16powertools.com/
Method5 is a software development company based in Toronto, which has been designing and developing custom software and web applications since 2001, including those for the iPhone and Android mobile platforms. Offering custom software and mobile app development, enterprise portal development, content management systems, cloud applications, business intelligence software and process automation, as well as application maintenance, its clients and products are featured.
https://www.method5.com/
The Australian software company was founded in 1993 and now has a Colorado, US base, as well. Primarily selling to individuals through its website, NCH offers software for audio and video, business, dictation and transcription, graphics, telephony, and other utilities, which are sorted by product categories and subcategories, some of which are available for download free, while others may be purchased and downloaded. Technical and activation support is available.
https://www.nchsoftware.com/
Neuber is a software company offering several computer applications, including various task management utilities, font creation, and management software, time tracking tools, process analyzers, sound utilities, typing tutors, and others, which are described here and made available for online purchase. The features of each are listed, along with screenshots, and a list of requirements. Users may also download a trial version for free, which may be unlocked with purchase.
https://www.neuber.com/
NIC is a national-scale organization with local, state, and federal government expertise. Created by Tyler Technologies, NIC includes software for Health and Human Services agencies, as well as secure, flexible, and scalable payment software for governments, and Gov2Go, a mobile application that serves as a personal assistant for government services. Others include reservation and licensing software for government agencies, and software applications for regulatory enforcement and licensing.
https://www.egov.com/
Online since 2001, Old Version offers free downloads of old versions of software, of particular use to people using older computers, assisting those who are not able or interested in constantly upgrading their computers or their software, also serving as a repository of historical programs. The available software is sorted by the operating system, including Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android, as well as a separate category for games. Sorting by type of software is also available.
http://www.oldversion.com/
Headquartered in Sydney, Australia, with a branch office in California, United States, PassMark is a privately owned software development company specializing in producing benchmarking and testing solutions and providing IT consultancy services. Its software and hardware products are put forth, along with its custom software development, and other services. A profile of the company is put forth, and an online store allows for purchases, upgrades, site licenses, and specials.
https://www.passmark.com/
Practical Compliance Solutions
PCS is a Rutherford, New Jersey company that has been in business since 2002, providing software and hardware solutions, particularly with a variety of data collection systems using barcodes and other media, such as RFID, as well as SQL Server tuning and application troubleshooting. The company builds the products that it sells, rather than reselling other company’s products. Its products and services are outlined, and an overview of the company is included.
http://www.complianceabc.com/
Previously known as JET Software, Qarbon is a California-based software company whose flagship product is its ViewletBuilder, a cross-platform software simulation and tutorial builder, as well as other related products, such as ViewletQuiz, ViewletCam, ViewletPoll, and ViewletCentral, each of which is highlighted here. Products may be purchased through its online store, and demo versions may be downloaded from the site. Case studies and a customer list are included.
http://www.qarbon.com/
Offering utilities for Linux, Mac, and Windows machines, the site features a selection of software utilities and applications, sorted into categories, such as audio and multimedia, business, communications, desktop, development, education, games and entertainment, graphic applications, home and hobby, network and internet, security and privacy, and others. For each listed application, the release date, publisher, platform, price, and requirements are listed.
http://www.qarchive.org/
Founded in 1999, Reasoft is an IT company that produces utility software for businesses and individuals, including the Reasoft PDF Printer, Reasoft Network Firewall, ReaConverter, ReaSoft Data Backup, ReaSoft Network Drive, ReaGallery, ReaCompressor, and ReaWatermark, as well as a line of batch image converters for JPEG, GIF, and TIFF, each of which are highlighted here, and made available for online purchase and download, including some that is available as freeware.
http://www.reasoft.com/
Warer offers free direct downloads of applications and games for the Microsoft Windows operating system, each of which is scanned for viruses or malware. For each software program listed, a description is presented, along with a list of features, an overview of the developer and publisher, the supported platforms, and statistics, as well as antivirus scan results. Users may rate and review the product. Similar apps are noted. Featured applications and those newly added are highlighted.
http://www.warer.com/
