Software: On the Web and Your Devices

Laptop with binary code screen
By brgfx on Freepik

Software in Your Day to Day

Software is code, assembled into a program that accomplishes a function on a computer of some kind. There is software for just about everything nowadays: weather apps, Internet design tools, operating systems, and Internet browsers are just a few examples. What the average consumer recognizes as software though, is something much further from computer hardware than an operating system. What they will most likely be familiar with are apps like freeware, and Software as a Service (SaaS) applications in the form of webware.

Software as a Service

SaaS is a type of cloud application model, meaning that this type of software functions entirely separate from a SaaS user's computer and uses a company's devices remotely to preform its function. Think of Software as a Service as a program which utilizes computer resources owned and controlled by the owner of that program, but potentially accessible by hundreds of paying customers with an Internet connection. Canva, Netflix, PayPal, and Google Drive are some examples of SaaS applications. 

Webware

Webware can fall under the category of SaaS. Webware is the general term for software that is delivered, accessed, and used over the web without an actual download. SaaS is webware, but if users do not need to pay for use of that program, particularly on a subscription, then it is not SaaS. As mentioned above, even the biggest companies provide webware. It is by no means obsolete. In reality, the software has only grown in scale over the years. 

Google Sites

As part of Google Workspace, Google Sites is technically a SaaS application and webware. I have personally tried out this software and made a portfolio in the process of reviewing the platform. You can check that out here: Google Sites Portfolio. My opinion on the software and the process involved making a site can be summarized thusly: restrained, slightly flexible, and simple. 

Google Sites allows you to assemble a site by selecting pre-made content blocks or content block elements like text blocks, images, or videos and entering in your own information and pictures. There is a limited selection of themes to choose from along with a section to make your own theme or import custom ones from Google Drive. I really liked the ability to perfectly interface with other Google Workspace applications like Spreadsheets and Docs to include their content into your site. These combined features can make for very quick deployment of websites if you know what you're doing and have the content on hand. That's where my compliments end though.

The images you can so very easily add through Google Images are also the death of fast page loading, even if there are few on a page. My contact and about page, which have a grand total of one image each, experience noticeable slow downs with pictures in there, even on the lightning fast Wi-Fi I was working on. Google Sites does not allow users to change any layout or page styles on varying screen sizes, so you are left with the platform's poorly done automatic mobile responsiveness features if you are using custom layouts. There are no eCommerce site features at all, search engine optimization management (SEO, helps sites rank higher in search results), is poor to none, and accessibility features like advanced alt tagging for images are absent.

Google Sites is in my opinion, a site builder made for students, simple portfolios, and extremely low-need web pages. There are just too many features missing for anything more complicated, and what's already there isn't very good. 

Freeware

Freeware is different than webware because for one, the software must be downloaded from the Internet instead of used totally online; local versus cloud applications in other words, with freeware being the former. The interesting thing about freeware is that it is, like the name says, completely free for a user to download, install, share, and/or use by anyone who wants it. The only real restrictions is the protection of its source code from alteration, the difference between freeware and genuinely free software. Just like webware, freeware is a concept of software deployment that is not going anywhere, namely because of its relationship to those nifty little programs called apps.

Apps

Apps are to freeware what SaaS is to webware, connected by virtue of one being a general category of the other. Apps are self-contained programs designed to run on a variety of devices depending on what systems they were designed for. An app could be made for a desktop computer, a mobile phone, Windows, MacOS, Linux, or a combination of these specifications. An app operates on a similar premise to freeware. They are locally installed over the Internet, typically through an app store. Some of them could be freeware, or others could cost money.

What makes apps really important though is the impact they have had on general mobile phone use and development. Think of what you use your phone for. Taking pictures, browsing social media feeds, texting, sending email, playing games. All that? With apps. Apple pushes for better cameras on their iPhones, they develop the camera along with it. Game developers want an easy in on the game designer market, they write an app and upload it an app store. Mobile phone and apps are intricately linked with one another. Apps are the way most people interface with their phones after all. 

In Conclusion

Software is ubiquitous in today's world. Where there are computers, nay, technology, there is software. Knowing the kinds of programs there are for sale and which ones are just lying around for you to use is vital in not only making informed purchases, but with being knowledgeable about how to manage your own software, your own apps. There is no escaping code nowadays, so you may as well be in the know.

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