Computer software can often be described as anything which is not hardware. Hardware is solid objects, whereas software is something which runs internally on a computer.

Software can generally be divided into three classes, system software, programming software and application software.

The system software helps run the hardware within a computed system and can include drivers, operating systems, servers and windowing systems.

Programming software usually provides some sort of tools wich can aid a computer programmer in writing sotware for a computer. An integrated development environment (IDE) is a single application which attempts to manage functions such as compilers, linkers, text editors, debuggers etc.

Application software allows users to achieve specific tasks. Applications may include business sotware, computer games, databases, spreadsheets, educational software and word processing.