Okay let's start with a few of quick definitions. If you know these terms, great, if not, they're not really complicated and will help you to interface with those really geeky IT guys at work!
- Hardware - The physical bits of your computer. Think monitor, video card, audio card, network card, processor, memory.
- Software - The "non physical" bits of your computer. Think, the bits that make the computer go as well as the bits that make the computer useful to you. The software is broken into two main bits, they are:
- System Software - The software that controls the hardware and makes it possible for the application software to run.
- Application Software - The software that allows you to do cool things like browse the web, edit a document or enter expense or tax information. Application software usually "sits on top of" some—if not all—of the system software
- Operating System - System software that usually sits below all of the other system software—between it and some of the application software, and the hardware. Some parts of the system software may be in an equal place to the operating system (in that they my sit between the hardware and the application software).
Now, as you can see, your application (or application software) "lives on top of" the operating system and other system software. Back in the old days—when yours truly worked on mainframes—the operating system and the application software were two distinct and different things, the idea of an application failing bringing down or "freezing" your computer was almost unheard of. If the application died, somebody somewhere was sent a message and restarted it or fixed whatever caused it to die or both.
These days, operating system manufacturers (think MicroSoft, Apple and the community that puts together Linux among others) are not nearly so careful in their protection of the operating system. As a result, often when an application "goes down" or "freezes," so does the operating system—taking all the other applications with it.
I'm sure you've experienced this. I think everybody who has operated a computer recently has.
I bring this up because I am more than a bit mad at operating system makers. I want for the operating system to be protected again! I want for my application "misbehaving" to not cause all other applications that are running to die one way or another (as well as probably the operating system) too.
I understand that computers these days are—in many senses—more complicated than were their predecessors. Even so, I think we can do much better than we do right now.
Now, for those of you out there that are not "techies," you may be unaware of why many of us who are, don't care to use Microsoft Internet Explorer on our computers. Why on earth do those weirdo techies not want to use IE?!?
I can't speak for anything like all of the techies I know, but I can tell you why I personally try not to use IE.
The problem is that Microsoft—in an attempt to try to make "tightly integrated products"—"intertwined" their browser product with their operating system software.
"So?" you say. And your question is justified. So here's your answer. The problem is, when IE crashes or freezes and I have to "kill" it, it brings part of the operating system software down with it (think task bar for example). Now, Microsoft has gotten much better at recovering from these little "glitches" in the course of time, but sometimes things do not work like they want them to (things don't show up in the tray—near the clock—that are still running for example).
And that's why I'm a confirmed FireFox user. Not because IE doesn't work as well as a browser, but when FireFox goes down, it takes nothing else with it as a rule (unless we have one of those operating system issues that cause freezes and crashes of the whole system).
Okay, that's enough ranting for the moment. If this was not "too much" for you, come back and check on me again. I will try to keep it from getting too techie.
