Operating System Vs Program Vs Application

Hello Geeks As We Know this is Ramy , I'm Writing This Post to Clear up the differences between Three Things that will make the IT Field Even Clearer For You If you really understand it .

Lots of people may get confused when comes the talk about Operating Systems Then Programs Then Applications .. So We are here trying to put a simple explanation For each of the Tasks i Mentioned .

And Let's not to forget , I care About you Opinions and Comments and would like if someone have a better explanation to comment it down this post .. Also If there is Any Questions I would be happy to Answer it here or In a Coming post if Needed .

Let Us Begin By This Simple Picture Before We Dive Into The Explanation :

We Can Replace The Application Part by Program. 

So Let's Start Explaining Each Of the Following : 

1. Operating Systems :We can Define The Operating Systems As The Software That Enables The Computer Hardware To Communicate With The Applications Or The Programs That End Users Use.And Without The Thing Called "Operating System" The Computer Hardware and Software programs Would Be totally Useless. Examples For Operating Systems Are : 
   • UNIX Operating Systems
   • LINUX Operating System
   • Microsoft Windows Operating System
   • Macintosh Operating System(Known As MAC)
   
   
2. Software Programs : A Program is a Set of instructions that can be executed on a computer. A Program Can be an End User Program that perform a specific Task or It can Be a Part Of An Operating System That Perform A Specified Task With the Computer.  Examples For Computer Programs :
   • Microsoft Office
   • Active Directory (Windows Server).


3. Software Applications : Applications Are That Kind of Software that perform A Specific Task For The End User. In Other Words , We Can Define Applications As The Software That Help Users To Perform Tasks On the Computer Easily. And Today in 2013 You can Find A countless number of Applications That Perform almost Every Single Task You Want It Done On Computers From Accounting To Administrating Pharmacies And Many Many Other Tasks .......      But Here Are Some Examples For Software Applications :
   • Computer Calculator
   • Adobe Photoshop
   • Fire Fox
   • NotePad

By Here I hope I could Explain You Enough To Get The Difference Between Those Three Things ... I Will Just Put Some Final Thoughts :

• An Operating System Is A Middle Point Software That Stands Between the Computer Hardware And The Software Applications Or Programs Which Are Being Used By The Computer User , So We Can Say That The Operating System is The Software That Connects The Hardware To The User To Communicate Easily.
• A Set Of Computer Programs Is Actually What An Operating Systems Made Of! In Other Words : An Operating System is Nothing More than a Set Of Interrelated Programs That Runs Together.
• Software Programs And Software Applications : The two intersect, but are not synonymous. A program with a user-interface is an application, but many programs are not applications.

Here We Reach to the End of The Post, By now you should be able to differentiate between An Operating System And A Computer Program And A Software Application. Send Me Questions AnyTime

Best Wishes Geeks :)