what's the difference b/w system & application software
ARTICLE # 50
ADDED ON 23rd Mar,2004
URL /home2/softbiz/public_html/faq/faq_qanda.php?id=50

system software (s/w) : Those softwares which interact directly with the Hardware (h/w) R called System s/w, another definition is "these generally need no other supporting software to perform their job". e.g. Compiler, Interpreter, Operating System (OS)etc.

Application s/w : Those softwares which need another software to interact with the h/w. They can't communicate directly with the h/w. (This way s/w can be made h/w independent). e.g. Word processor (like MS Word), Chat program etc. These all need some OS to perform communication with the h/w