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Encyclopedia > Software industry
Starting in the 1980s, application software has been sold in mass-produced packages through retailers
Starting in the 1980s, application software has been sold in mass-produced packages through retailers

The software industry comprises of businesses involved in the development, maintenance and publication of computer software. The software industry started in the mid-1970s at the time of the personal computer revolution. The industry also includes software services, such as training and consultancy. The largest and most profitable of software companies are located in the United States. As of 2006, the software industry is dominated by Microsoft. Software Magazine's 500 list in 2005 shows the total amount of revenue brought in by software companies per locale, with the highest being California due to Silicon Valley and the amount of Fortune 500 software companies residing in that area. [1] Image File history File links Gnome-globe. ... Image File history File links Wiki_letter_w. ... Image File history File links Packagedsoftwareatretail. ... Image File history File links Packagedsoftwareatretail. ... Software development is the translation of a user need or marketing goal into a software product. ... A software publisher is a publishing company in the software industry between the developer and the distributor. ... Software, consisting of programs, enables a computer to perform specific tasks, as opposed to the physical components of the system (hardware). ... Wikibooks has more about this subject: Marketing In economics and marketing, a service is the non-material equivalent of a good. ... Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ... Official language(s) English Capital  Sacramento Largest city  Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ... A view of downtown San Jose, the self-proclaimed Capital of Silicon Valley. ... The Fortune 500 is a ranking of the top 500 United States corporations as measured by gross revenue. ...

Contents

Overview

There are mainly two types of businesses in the software industry; those developing proprietary software such as Microsoft, and those developing open source software. Developing proprietary software is costly and involves software licensing and the need to protect the software from cracking and piracy. Proprietary indicates that a party, or proprietor, exercises private ownership, control or use over an item of property, usually to the exclusion of other parties. ... Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ... Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ... Cracking-divides a group’s voters into other districts, where they will be ineffective minorities; and kidnapping places two incumbents from the same party in the same district. ... Piracy is robbery committed at sea, or sometimes on the shore, by an agent without a commission from a sovereign nation. ...


The main financial return on open source comes from selling services, such as training and support, rather than the software itself. Many contributors to open source software (especially those developing software tools) also feel that there is a significant long-term return in the form of improved resources and capabilities within the software industry. Despite doing much business in properietary software, some companies like Sun Microsystems and IBM participate in developing free and open source software to deter from monopolies and take a portion of their market share. Netscape's actions are an example of this, and thus Firefox has become more popular. Sun Microsystems, Inc. ... International Business Machines Corporation (known as IBM or Big Blue; NYSE: IBM) is a multinational computer technology corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, USA. The company is one of the few information technology companies with a continuous history dating back to the 19th century. ... In economics, a monopoly (from the Latin word monopolium - Greek language monos, one + polein, to sell) is defined as a persistent market situation where there is only one provider of a product or service. ... Market share, in strategic management and marketing, is the percentage or proportion of the total available market or market segment that is being serviced by a company. ... Netscape Communications Corporation (commonly known as Netscape), was an American computer services company, best known for its web browser. ... Firefox may refer to: Firefox (novel), written by Craig Thomas, published in 1978 Firefox (film), the 1982 movie starring Clint Eastwood, based on the novel Firefox (arcade game), the laserdisc arcade game based on the movie Mozilla Firefox, a web browser The Red Fox or the Red Panda, based on...


Practices

Freeware

Freeware is copyrighted computer software which is made available for use free of charge, for an unlimited time, as opposed to shareware where the user is required to pay (e.g. after some trial period or for additional fuctionality). Authors of freeware often want to "give something to the community", but also want credit for their software and to retain control of its future development. Sometimes when programmers decide to stop developing a freeware product, they will give the source code to another programmer or release the product's source code to the public as free software. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Copyright symbol Copyright is a set of exclusive rights regulating the use of a particular expression of an idea or information. ... Computer software (or simply software) refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of a computer for some purpose. ... Look up shareware in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... This article is about free software as defined by the sociopolitical free software movement; for information on software distributed without charge, see freeware. ...


Shareware

Shareware is a marketing method for computer software. Shareware software is typically obtained free of charge, either by downloading from the Internet or on magazine cover-disks. A user tries out the program, and thus shareware has also been known as "try before you buy". A shareware program is accompanied by a request for payment, and the software's distribution license often requires such a payment. Look up shareware in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Wikibooks has more about this subject: Marketing Look up marketing in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Software, consisting of programs, enables a computer to perform specific tasks, as opposed to the physical components of the system (hardware). ...


Open source

Open source describes the principles and methodologies to promote open access to the production and design process for various goods, products, resources and technical conclusions or advice. The term is most commonly applied to the source code of software that is made available to the general public with either relaxed or non-existent intellectual property restrictions. This allows users to create user-generated software content through either incremental individual effort, or collaboration. Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ... In logic, a conclusion is a proposition inferred from premises. ... Source code (commonly just source or code) is any series of statements written in some human-readable computer programming language. ... Computer software (or simply software) refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of a computer for some purpose. ... For the 2006 film, see Intellectual Property (movie). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Collaboration is the process wherein units work together to achieve outcomes for shared stakeholders, quicker and more cost effectively than if they worked on their own, without having to change the how codes of any of the participating Units. ...


Commercial

Commercial software is computer software sold for commercial purposes or that serves commercial purposes. Commercial software is most often proprietary software, but free software is also used as commercial software.[2] All or parts of software packages and services that support commerce are increasingly made available as free software, including products from RedHat, Apple Computer, Sun Microsystems, and Google. The Microsoft Corporation uses "commercial software", rather than "proprietary software", to describe their business model.[3] Software, consisting of programs, enables a computer to perform specific tasks, as opposed to the physical components of the system (hardware). ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Proprietary software is software with restrictions on using, copying and modifying as enforced by the proprietor. ... This article is about free software as defined by the sociopolitical free software movement; for information on software distributed without charge, see freeware. ... This article is about free software as defined by the sociopolitical free software movement; for information on software distributed without charge, see freeware. ... Alternate meanings: See Red hat Red Hat, Inc. ... Apple Inc. ... Sun Microsystems, Inc. ... Google, Inc. ... Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), (founded 1975), headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA, is the worlds largest software company (with over 50,000 employees in various countries, as of May 2004). ... The term business model describes a broad range of informal and formal models that are used by enterprises to represent various aspects of business, such as operational processes, organizational structures, and financial forecasts. ...


See also

Computer software (or simply software) refers to one or more computer programs and data held in the storage of a computer for some purpose. ... Software development is the translation of a user need or marketing goal into a software product. ... A software publisher is a publishing company in the software industry between the developer and the distributor. ... Software engineering is the application of a systematic, disciplined, quantifiable approach to the development, operation, and maintenance of software. ... Software engineering economics is the economics of the software industry. ...

References

  1. ^ Software Magazine 500 (2005)
  2. ^ Free Software Foundation. Categories of Free and Non-Free Software.[1]
  3. ^ http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/exec/craig/05-03sharedsource.mspx

The Free Software Foundation (FSF) is a non-profit corporation founded in October 1985 by Richard Stallman to support the free software movement (free as in freedom), and in particular the GNU project. ...

External links


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