Additionally, legal issues such as software licenses and intellectual property rights play a significant role in the distribution of software products. Outline of software the following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to software It is held in various forms of memory of the computer. Software that fits the free software definition may be more appropriately called free software Computer software can be put into categories based on common function, type, or field of use There are three broad classifications
Application software is the general designation of computer programs for performing tasks Software is a recent development in human history and is fundamental to the information age Ada lovelace 's programs for charles babbage 's analytical engine in the 19th century are often considered the founder of the discipline Software as a service (saas / sæs / [1]) is a cloud computing service model in which a provider delivers application software to clients while managing the required physical and software resources The software industry expanded in the early 1960s, shortly after computers became widely available Demand for software was created by universities, the government, and businesses