What Is Software

It's pretty simple -- "hardware" refers to all of the physical pieces of equipment , like your mouse , your computer's screen , the hard drive , etc .
Software" is all of the parts of the computer that you can't really see or touch . Software would include things like Microsoft Word , your email program , Windows or the Mac OS , plus all of your personal files like letters , photos , music , and more .
One way to think about it is like this : hardware is like your brain , the physical part of your body , while software is like your mind or your thoughts -- the non-physical part of yourself .
Software runs on hardware , just like your thoughts "run on" your brain .
Make sense ? Now let's talk more specifically about one type of software : a device driver .
What is a device driver ? Here's an easy way to think about what a device driver is .
Imagine that every piece of hardware , including your printer , your mouse , and so on , speaks a different language .
So one speaks French , another one speaks Italian , another one Cantonese , etc .
So when you plug in a new printer and turns it on , your computer says "hi" and the printer replies in a foreign language the computer doesn't understand .
So it needs an interpreter .
And when I say interpreter , I mean just like in the real world , like if a foreign diplomat comes to the country but doesn't speak the local language . They need an interpreter to help them communicate with the locals .
That , basically speaking , is what a driver is -- an interpreter that helps your computer talk to a
specific piece of equipment . And you need a different interpreter for each piece of equipment that you hook up to the computer .
Now in some cases , the driver may be "preinstalled" on your computer ( in other words , the computer already has the interpreter ready and waiting in case it's needed ) and in other cases , it needs to either be installed from a CD , or downloaded off the Internet , and then installed on the computer .
But either way , the computer needs that driver before it can talk to the printer or whatever other type of device you may have hooked up to the computer .