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Principles of Information Technology 1 Lesson Activities Student Answer Sheet Basic System and Application Software The Lesson Activities will help you meet these educational goals: Content Knowledge—You will explore different operating systems and application software used in information systems. Inquiry—You will conduct online research, in which you will collect information and make observations in written form. 21st Century Skills—You will employ online tools for research and analysis. Directions You will evaluate these activities yourself. Please save this document before beginning the lesson and keep the document open for reference during the lesson. Type your answers directly in this document for all activities. _________________________________________________________________________ Self-Checked Activities Read the instructions for the following activities and type in your responses. At the end of the lesson, click the link to open the Student Answer Sheet. Use the answers or sample responses to evaluate your own work. 1. Common Operating Systems and Application Software In this activity, you will explore the operating systems and application software that businesses commonly use. a. Contact a few information systems professionals and ask them what types of operating systems and application software they use in their organizations. (Alternatively, you may browse through articles in business periodicals for the same information.) Fill in the table with information about the operating systems and application software used in four different organizations. 1 © 2013 EDMENTUM, INC. Sample answer: Company Operating Systems Oracle Corporation Oracle Linux Oracle Solaris IBM Informix cross-platform operating systems: Microsoft Windows Linux Mac OS X multiple operating system software version UNIX Tibco Software Inc. BEA Systems Application Software database application software business application software database application software business application software relational database application software b. Give reasons for each company’s choice of operating systems. Sample answer: The Oracle Linux operating system software includes all the latest innovations in the field. It is an advanced version with improved performance that provides the best software options to its users. Oracle Linux is a derivative of the UNIX operating system, which belongs to the multiuser/multitasking operating system category, and this version has become the most purchased open-source software in the industry. The Oracle Solaris (UNIX operating system) is also a commonly used operating system in the Oracle Corporation, and it provides successful outcomes to its users. The IBM Informix uses cross-platform operating systems. This means that the software provided by the Informix can run on any given operating system if it has a certain format (example: x86 architecture for Microsoft Windows, UNIX, LINUX, Mac OS X). Since almost all of the common operating systems are in use, it terminates the need to install a specific operating system. The company can use any of the given operating systems. Tibco Software provides business application software and on-premises use of software to leading software companies. This corporation uses all types of operating systems, and the only shortcoming is that not all of the operating system versions update simultaneously. Some of the software produced by Tibco Software works on Windows 7 or 8, and so on. BEA Systems specializes in infrastructure software and uses relational database application software. This company uses the UNIX operating system and its derivative, the Linux operating system. These are multiuser/multitasking operating systems, and 2 they give BEA Systems opportunities to reach out to more users and add new applications software. 2. Types of Application Software and System Software In this activity, you will explore different types of application software and operating systems. a. Research various kinds of application software that this lesson did not discuss, and briefly describe their use. Use business periodicals, magazines, and books for your research, and then write about at least three types of application software. Sample answer: (Individual answers will vary.) Types of application software that this lesson did not cover include educational software, accounting software, and enterprise software. Education software: This software consists of facilities that enable individuals with an educational need to access the contents. Teachers, trainers, students, and others who wish to obtain extra knowledge on a particular subject or take a course as a whole may make use of this software. Courseware is an example of educational software. It is a term used by companies for educational packages that they offer, which involve a whole course or lessons bundled together on a particular subject with tests and other materials. We can view this software as ‘computer-formatted’ classroom software that allows an individual to gain learning experience without being physically present in an educational institution. With an increasing need to reduce harmful environmental effects from the over-use of paper, companies as well as educational institutions have taken to technology to help them solve this problem. Assessment software is educational software that prepares a virtual testing environment, which conducts tests and evaluates each student’s ability and knowledge. It relies on interconnected networks that create a common platform for computers to store the online test results and access it at the time of evaluation. Accounting software: As the name suggests, accounting software records and processes accounting transactions. It can consist of an in-house system created by a company, or a company may buy software from a different company or third party and then integrate the program into their system. It keeps track of the accounts payable and receivable, the payroll, and the trial balance. Accounting software is an accounting information system. Enterprise software: This software keeps track of the needs and objectives of an organization. Some organizations may use this software to plan their entire business system. However, this can be expensive, and many companies avoid using it. Enterprise application software provides services related to business-oriented tools, such as online shopping, online payments, automated billing systems, and so on. The 3 most popular customer relations management, business intelligence, project management, and human resource management programs fall under this particular software category. b. Using business periodicals, magazines, or books, research and identify two types of operating systems not discussed in this lesson. Briefly describe these operating systems and their advantages and drawbacks. Sample answer: (Individual answers will vary.) Embedded operating systems and distributed operating systems are two types of operating systems that this lesson did not cover. Embedded operating system: This operating system is for embedded computer systems, designed for compact and specific use of the resources available to such operating systems. The advantage of the embedded operating system is that its operations are very specific, and the focus is on speed and instant delivery of messages. It carries out tasks in real-time. However, since this particular operating system has limited resources, it restricts the usage of Random Access Memory and Read Only Memory. This means that specialized applications cannot run on these computer systems because they cannot use enough memory space. This is the main disadvantage of the embedded operating system. Distributed operating system: The distributed system is a software system that involves various components located on computers spread across large distances and in connection with each other, which means they are interconnected. Such networked computers working on distributed operating systems have a common goal to achieve, and they communicate within the network in the form of messages. The communication between these interconnected computers is quick and precise, and it is an advantage of this type of system. However, the distributed operating system’s functioning limits it to accessing a question, solving it, and then stopping all processes after it. It is unable to continue the process and to keep developing new solutions to the problems presented to it. It handles only one problem at a time, which is a disadvantage when confronted with multifaceted problems. 4