A lab in which computer and information science (CIS) is studied
Information and computer science (ICS) or computer and information science (CIS) (plural forms, i.e., sciences, may also be used) is a field that emphasizes bothcomputing and informatics, upholding the strong association between the fields of information sciences and computer sciences and treating computers as a tool rather than a field.
Information science is one with a long history, unlike the relatively very young
field of computer science, and is primarily concerned with gathering,
storing, disseminating, sharing and protecting any and all forms of
information. It is a broad field, covering a myriad of different areas
but is often referenced alongside computer science because of the
incredibly useful nature of computers and computer programs in helping
those studying and doing research in the field – particularly in helping
to analyse data
and in spotting patterns too broad for a human to intuitively perceive.
While information science is sometimes confused with information
theory, the two have vastly different subject matter. Information theory
focuses on one particular mathematical concept of information while
information science is focused on all aspects of the processes and
techniques of information.
Computer science, in contrast, is less focused on
information and its different states, but more, in a very broad sense,
on the use of computers – both in theory and practice – to design and
implement algorithms
in order to aid the processing of information during the different
states described above. It has strong foundations in the field of
mathematics, as the very first recognised practitioners of the field
were renowned mathematicians such as Alan Turing.
Information science and computing began to converge in the 1950s
and 1960s, as information scientists started to realize the many ways
computers would improve information storage and retrieval.
Terminology
Due to the distinction between computers and computing, some of the research groups refer to computing or datalogy. The French refer to computer science as the term informatique. The term information and communications technology (ICT), refers to how humans communicate with using machines and computers, making a distinction from information and computer science, which is how computers use and gain information.
Informatics is also distinct from computer science, which encompasses the study of logic and low-level computing issues.
Education
Universities may confer degrees of ICS and CIS, not to be confused with a more specific Bachelor of Computer Science or respective graduate computer science degrees.
The QS World University Rankings is one of the most widely
recognised and distinguished university comparisons. They ranked the top
10 universities for computer science and information systems in 2015.
They are:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
Stanford University
University of Oxford
Carnegie Mellon University
Harvard University
University of California, Berkeley (UCB)
University of Cambridge
The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich)
Princeton University
A Computer Information Science degree gives students both network and
computing knowledge which is needed to design, develop, and assist
information systems which helps to solve business problems and to
support business problems and to support business operations and
decision making at a managerial level also.
The discipline of Information and Computer Science spans a
vast range of areas from basic computer science theory (algorithms and
computational logic) to in depth analysis of data manipulation and use
within technology.
Programming theory
The
process of taking a given algorithm and encoding it into a language
that can be understood and executed by a computer. There are many
different types of programming languages and various different types of
computers, however, they all have the same goal: to turn algorithms into
machine code.
Popular programming languages used within the academic study of
CIS include, but are not limited to: Java, Python, C#, C++, Perl, Ruby,
Pascal, Swift, Visual Basic.
Information and information systems
The
academic study of software and hardware systems that process large
quantities and data, support large scale data management and how data
can be used.
This is where the field is unique from the standard study of computer
science. The area of information systems focuses on the networks of
hardware and software that are required to process, manipulate and
distribute such data.
Computer systems and organisations
The
process of analysing computer architecture and various logic circuits.
This involves looking at low level computer processes at bit level
computation. This is an in-depth look into the hardware processing of a
computational system, involving looking at the basic structure of a
computer and designing such systems. This can also involve evaluating complex circuit diagrams, and being able to construct these to solve a main problem.
The main purpose behind this area of study is to achieve an
understanding of how computers function on a basic level, often through
tracing machine operations.
Machines, languages, and computation
This
is the study into fundamental computer algorithms, which are the basis
to computer programs. Without algorithms, no computer programs would
exist.
This also involves the process of looking into various mathematical
functions behind computational algorithms, basic theory and functional
(low level) programming.
In an academic setting, this area would introduce the fundamental
mathematical theorems and functions behind theoretical computer science
which are the building blocks for other areas in the field. Complex
topics such as; proofs, algebraic functions and sets will be introduced
during studies of CIS.
Developments
Information
and computer science is a field that is rapidly developing with job
prospects for students being extremely promising with 75.7% of graduates
gaining employment.
Also the IT industry employs one in twenty of the workforce with it
predicted to increase nearly five times faster than the average of the
UK and between 2012 and 2017 more than half a million people will be
needed within the industry and the fact that nine out of ten tech firms
are suffering from candidate shortages which is having a negative impact
on their business as it delays the creation and development of new
products,
and it's predicted in the US that in the next decade there will be more
than one million jobs in the technology sector than computer science
graduates to fill them.
Because of this programming is now being taught at an earlier age with
an aim to interest students from a young age into computer and
information science hopefully leading more children to study this at a
higher level. For example, children in England will now be exposed to
computer programming at the age of 5 due to an updated national
curriculum.
Employment
Due
to the wide variety of jobs that now involve computer and information
science related tasks, it is difficult to provide a comprehensive list
of possible jobs in this area, but some of the key areas are artificial
intelligence, software engineering and computer networking and
communication. Work in this area also tends to require sufficient
understanding of mathematics and science.
Moreover, jobs that having a CIS degree can lead to, include: systems
analyst, network administrator, system architect, information systems
developer, web programmer, or software developer.
The earning potential for CIS graduates is quite promising. A
2013 survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers
(NACE) found that the average starting salary for graduates who earned a
degree in a computer related field was $59,977, up 4.3% from the prior
year. This is higher than other popular degrees such as business
($54,234), education ($40,480) and math and sciences ($42,724).
Furthermore, Payscale ranked 129 college degrees based on their
graduates earning potential with engineering, math, science, and
technology fields dominating the ranking. With eight computer related
degrees appearing among the top 30. With the lowest starting salary for
these jobs being $49,900.
A Rasmussen College article describes various jobs CIS graduates may
obtain with software applications developers at the top making a median
income of $98,260.
According to the National Careers Service an Information Scientist can expect to earn £24,000+ per year as a starting salary.
Enterprise software, also known as enterprise application software (EAS), is computer software used to satisfy the needs of an organization rather than its individual users. Enterprise software is an integral part of a computer-based information system,
handling a number of business operations, for example to enhance
business and management reporting tasks, or support production
operations and back office functions. Enterprise systems must process information at a relatively high speed.
Services provided by enterprise software are typically
business-oriented tools. As companies and other organizations have
similar departments and systems, enterprise software is often available
as a suite of customizable programs. Function-specific enterprise
software uses include database management, customer relationship
management, supply chain management and business process management.
Definitions and industry
The term enterprise software is used in industry, and business research publications, but is not common in computer science.
The term was widely popularized in the early 1990s by major software
vendors in conjunction with licensing deals with the show Star Trek. In academic literature no coherent definition can be found. The computer historian Martin Campbell-Kelly
contemplated in 2003 that the growth of the corporate software industry
is not well understood. Enterprise application software (EAS) is
recognized among academics as enterprise software
components and modules which support only a particular business
function. These EAS software components and modules can interoperate, so
that cross-functional or inter-organizational enterprise systems can be
built up. In this context the industry may speak of middleware. Software that is primarily sold to consumers, is not called enterprise software.
According to Martin Fowler,
"Enterprise applications are about the display, manipulation, and
storage of large amounts of often complex data and the support or
automation of business processes with that data."
Enterprise application software
performs business functions such as order processing, procurement,
production scheduling, customer information management, energy
management, and accounting.
Enterprise systems
Enterprise system
Image describing what an enterprise system is
Type
software package
Enterprise systems (ES) are large-scale enterprise software
packages which support a range of business processes, information flows,
reporting, and data analytics in complex organizations. While ES are
generally packaged enterprise application software (PEAS) systems,
they can also be bespoke, custom-developed systems created to support a
specific organization's needs. Types of enterprise system include:
Although data warehousing or business intelligence
systems are enterprise-wide packaged application software often sold by
ES vendors, since they do not directly support execution of business
processes, they are often excluded from the term.
Enterprise systems are built on software platforms, such as SAP's NetWeaver and Oracle's Fusion, and databases.
From a hardware perspective, enterprise systems are the servers,
storage and associated software that large businesses use as the
foundation for their IT infrastructure.
These systems are designed to manage large volumes of critical data and
thus are typically designed to provide high levels of transaction
performance and data security.
The "seemingly boundless complexity" of enterprise systems has
been criticised, and arguments maintained for deploying discrete systems
for specific business tasks. Cynthia Rettig, an American businesswoman,
has argued that "the concept of a single monolithic system [has] failed
for many companies".
Types
Enterprise
software can be categorized by business function. Each type of
enterprise application can be considered a "system" due to the
integration with a firm's business processes. Categories of enterprise software may overlap due to this systemic interpretation. For example, IBM's Business Intelligence platform (Cognos), integrates with a predictive analytics platform (SPSS) and can obtain records from its database packages (Infosphere, DB2).
Certain industry-standard product categories have emerged, and these are shown below:
Other types of software which do not fit into well-known standard categories, including backup software, billing management, and accounting software. Enterprise contract management software
is used to bring all of an organisation's contractual commitments into a
single system for holistic management and to avoid the variability and
inefficiency inherent in manual contracting processes.
Business software (or a business application) is any software
or set of computer programs used by business users to perform various
business functions. These business applications are used to increase
productivity, measure productivity, and perform other business functions
accurately.
Overview
Much
business software is developed to meet the needs of a specific
business, and therefore is not easily transferable to a different
business environment, unless its nature and operation are identical. Due
to the unique requirements of each business, off-the-shelf
software is unlikely to completely address a company's needs. However,
where an on-the-shelf solution is necessary, due to time or monetary
considerations, some level of customization is likely to be required.
Exceptions do exist, depending on the business in question, and thorough
research is always required before committing to bespoke or
off-the-shelf solutions.
Some business applications are interactive, i.e., they have a graphical user interface
or user interface and users can query/modify/input data and view
results instantaneously. They can also run reports instantaneously. Some
business applications run in batch mode: they are set up to run based
on a predetermined event/time and a business user does not need to
initiate or monitor them.
Some business applications are built in-house and some are bought
from vendors (off-the-shelf software products). These business
applications are installed on either desktops or big servers. Prior to
the introduction of COBOL (a universal compiler) in 1965, businesses
developed their own unique machine language. RCA's language consisted of
12-position instructions. For example, to read a record into memory,
the first two digits would be the instruction (action) code. The next
four positions of the instruction (an 'A' address) would be the exact
leftmost memory location where you want the readable character to be
placed. Four positions (a 'B' address) of the instruction would note the
very rightmost memory location where you want the last character of the
record to be located. A two-digit 'B' address also allows the
modification of any instruction. Instruction codes and memory
designations excluded the use of 8's or 9's. The first RCA business
application was implemented in 1962 on a 4k RCA 301. The RCA 301,
mid-frame 501, and large frame 601 began their marketing in early 1960.
Many kinds of users are found within the business environment,
and can be categorized by using a small, medium, and large matrix:
Technologies that previously only existed in peer-to-peer software applications, like Kazaa and Napster, are starting to appear within business applications.
Digital dashboards, also known as business intelligence
dashboards, enterprise dashboards, or executive dashboards. These are
visually based summaries of business data that show an at-a-glance
understanding of conditions through metrics and key performance
indicators (KPIs). Dashboards are very popular tools that have arisen in
the last few years.
Online analytical processing (OLAP), (which includes HOLAP, ROLAP and MOLAP)
- are a capability of some management, decision support, and executive
information systems that support interactive examination of large
amounts of data from many perspectives.
Reporting software generates aggregated views of data to keep the management informed about the state of their business.
Procurement software is business software that helps to automate the purchasing function of organizations.
Data mining
is the extraction of consumer information from a database by utilizing
software that can isolate and identify previously unknown patterns or
trends in large amounts of data. There is a variety of data mining
techniques that reveal different types of patterns. Some of the techniques that belong here are statistical methods (particularly business statistics) and neural networks, as very advanced means of analyzing data.
Document management software is made for organizing and managing multiple documents of various types. Some of them have storage functions for security and backup of valuable business information.
Employee scheduling software- used for creating and distributing employee schedules, as well as for tracking employee hours.
History
Business software is designed to increase profits by cutting costs or speeding the productive cycle. In the early days of white-collar business automation, large mainframe computers were used to tackle the most tedious jobs, like bank cheque clearing and factory accounting.
Factory accounting software was among the most widely-used early business software tools and included the automation of general ledgers,
fixed assets inventory ledgers, cost accounting ledgers, accounts
receivable ledgers, and accounts payable ledgers (including payroll,
life insurance, health insurance, federal and state insurance and
retirement).
The early use of software to replace manual white-collar labor
was extremely profitable and caused a radical shift in white-collar
labor. One computer could in many cases replace many white-collar
administrative employees, without requiring any health or retirement
benefits.
Building on this success, corporate consumers demanded from IBM,
Hewlett-Packard, and other early suppliers, of business software to
replace the old-fashioned drafting board. Computer-aided drafting for computer-aided manufacturing (CAD-CAM) arrived in the early 1980s. Project management software was also so valued in the early 1980s that it could cost up to $500,000 per copy.
One of the most noticeable, widespread changes in business software was the word processor, whose rapid rise caused the decline of the ubiquitous IBM typewriter in the 1980s, as millions of companies switched to using Word Perfect, and later Microsoft Word. Other popular computer programs for business were mathematical spreadsheet programs such as Lotus 1-2-3, and later Microsoft Excel.
In the 1990s business shifted towards globalism, with the appearance of SAP
software, which coordinates a supply-chain of vendors in order to
streamline the operation of factory manufacturing. This process was
triggered and vastly accelerated by the advent of the internet.
The next phase in the evolution of business software is being driven by the emergence of robotic process automation
(RPA), which involves identifying and automating highly repetitive
tasks and processes, with an aim to drive operational efficiency, reduce
costs and limit human error. Industries at the forefront of RPA adoption include the insurance industry, banking and other related financial services, the legal industry, and the healthcare industry.
Application support
Business
applications are built based on the requirements of business users.
Also, these business applications are built to use certain kinds of
Business transactions or data items. These business applications run
flawlessly until there are no new business requirements or there is no
change in underlying Business transactions. Also, the business
applications run flawlessly if there are no issues with computer
hardware, computer networks (Internet/intranet), computer disks, power
supplies, and various software components (middleware, database,
computer programs, etc.).
Business applications can fail when an unexpected error occurs.
This error could occur due to a data error (an unexpected data input or a
wrong data input), an environment error (an in infrastructure-related
error), a programming error, a human error, or a workflow error. When a
business application fails one needs to fix the business application
error as soon as possible so that the business users can resume their
work. This work of resolving business application errors is known as
business application support.
Reporting errors
The
Business User calls the business application support team phone number
or sends an e-mail to the business application support team. The
business application support team gets all the details of the error from
the business user on the phone or from the e-mail. These details are
then entered in a tracking software. The tracking software creates a
request number and this request number is given to the business user.
This request number is used to track the progress on the support issue.
The request is assigned to a support team member.
Notification of errors
For
critical business application errors (such as an application not
available or an application not working correctly), an e-mail is sent to
the entire organization or impacted teams so that they are aware of the
issue. They are also provided with an estimated time for application
availability.
Investigation or analysis of application errors
The
business application support team member collects all the necessary
information about the business software error. This information is then
recorded in the support request. All of the data used by the business
user is also used in the investigation. The application program is
reviewed for any possible programming errors.
Error resolution
If
any similar business application errors occurred in the past then the
issue resolution steps are retrieved from the support knowledge base and
the error is resolved using those steps. If it is a new support error,
then new issue resolution steps are created and the error is resolved.
The new support error resolution steps are recorded in the knowledge
base for future use. For major business application errors (critical
infrastructure or application failures), a phone conference call is
initiated and all required support persons/teams join the call and they
all work together to resolve the error.
Code correction
If
the business application error occurred due to programming errors, then
a request is created for the application development team to correct
programming errors. If the business user needs new features or functions
in the business application, then the required
analysis/design/programming/testing/release is planned and a new version
of the business software is deployed.
Business process correction
If
the business application error occurred due to a workflow issue or
human errors during data input, then the business users are notified.
Business users then review their workflow and revise it if necessary.
They also modify the user guide or user instructions to avoid such an
error in the future.
Infrastructure issue correction
If
the business application error occurred due to infrastructure issues,
then the specific infrastructure team is notified. The infrastructure
team then implements permanent fixes for the issue and monitors the
infrastructure to avoid the re-occurrence of the same error.
Support follow-up and internal reporting
The
business application error tracking system is used to review all issues
periodically (daily, weekly, and monthly) and reports are generated to
monitor the resolved issues, repeating issues, and pending issues.
Reports are also generated for the IT/IS management for the improvement
and management of business applications.
Proprietary software is software that grants its creator, publisher, or other rightsholder or rightsholder partner a legal monopoly by modern copyright and intellectual property law
to exclude the recipient from freely sharing the software or modifying
it, and—in some cases, as is the case with some patent-encumbered and EULA-bound software—from making use of the software on their own, thereby restricting their freedoms.
Proprietary software is a subset of non-free software, a term defined in contrast to free and open-source software; non-commercial licenses such as CC BY-NC are not deemed proprietary, but are non-free. Proprietary software may either be closed-source software or source-available software.
Origin
Until the late 1960s, computers—especially large and expensive mainframe computers, machines in specially air-conditioned computer rooms—were usually leased to customers rather than sold.Service and all software available were usually supplied by
manufacturers without separate charge until 1969. Computer vendors
usually provided the source code for installed software to customers. Customers who developed software often made it available to the public without charge.
Closed source means computer programs whose source code is not
published except to licensees. It is available to be modified only by
the organization that developed it and those licensed to use the
software.
Starting in February 1983 IBM adopted an "object-code-only" model for a growing list of their software and stopped shipping much of the source code,even to licensees.
In 1983, binary software became copyrightable in the United States as well by the Apple vs. Franklin law decision, before which only source code was copyrightable.
Additionally, the growing availability of millions of computers based
on the same microprocessor architecture created for the first time an
unfragmented and big enough market for binary distributed software.
Licenses
A brief, written-out beta test software license issued by Macromedia in 1995
The tendency to license proprietary software, rather than sell it,
dates from the time period before the existence, then the scope of
software copyright protection was clear.
These licenses have continued in use after software copyright was
recognized in the courts, and are considered to grant the company extra
protection compared to copyright law. According to United States federal law,
a company can restrict the parties to which it sells but it cannot
prevent a buyer from reselling the product. Software licensing
agreements usually prohibit resale, enabling the company to maximize
revenue.
Traditionally, software was distributed in the form of binary object code that could not be understood or modified by the user, but could be downloaded and run. The user bought a perpetual license to use a particular version of the software. Software as service (SaaS) vendors—who have the majority market share in application software as of 2023—rarely offer perpetual licenses. SaaS licenses are usually temporary and charged on a pay-per-usage or subscription basis, although other revenue models such as freemium are also used.
For customers, the advantages of temporary licenses include reduced
upfront cost, increased flexibility, and lower overall cost compared to a
perpetual license. In some cases, the steep one-time cost demanded by sellers of traditional software were out of the reach of smaller businesses, but pay-per-use SaaS models makes the software affordable.
Mixed-source software
Software
distributions considered as proprietary may in fact incorporate a
"mixed source" model including both free and non-free software in the
same distribution. Most if not all so-called proprietary UNIX distributions are mixed source software, bundling open-source components like BIND, Sendmail, X Window System, DHCP, and others along with a purely proprietary kernel and system utilities.
Multi-licensing
Some free software packages are also simultaneously available under proprietary terms. Examples include MySQL, Sendmail and ssh. The original copyright holders for a work of free software, even copyleft free software, can use dual-licensing
to allow themselves or others to redistribute proprietary versions.
Non-copyleft free software (i.e. software distributed under a permissive
free software license or released to the public domain) allows anyone
to make proprietary redistributions.
Free software that depends on proprietary software is considered
"trapped" by the Free Software Foundation. This includes software
written only for Microsoft Windows, or software that could only run on Java, before it became free software.
Most of the software is covered by copyright which, along with contract law, patents, and trade secrets, provides legal basis for its owner to establish exclusive rights.
A software vendor delineates the specific terms of use in an end-user license agreement (EULA). The user may agree to this contract in writing, interactively on screen (clickwrap), or by opening the box containing the software (shrink wrap licensing). License agreements are usually not negotiable. Software patents grant exclusive rights to algorithms, software features, or other patentable subject matter, with coverage varying by jurisdiction. Vendors sometimes grant patent rights to the user in the license agreement. The source code for a piece of proprietary software is routinely handled as a trade secret.
Software can be made available with fewer restrictions on licensing or
source-code access; software that satisfies certain conditions of
freedom and openness is known as "free" or "open-source."
Limitations
Since license agreements do not override applicable copyright law or contract law, provisions in conflict with applicable law are not enforceable. Some software is specifically licensed and not sold, in order to avoid limitations of copyright such as the first-sale doctrine.
Exclusive rights
The owner of proprietary software exercises certain exclusive rights over the software. The owner can restrict the use, inspection of source code, modification of source code, and redistribution.
Vendors typically limit the number of computers on which software can
be used, and prohibit the user from installing the software on extra
computers.Restricted use is sometimes enforced through a technical measure, such as product activation, a product key or serial number, a hardware key, or copy protection.
Vendors may also distribute versions that remove particular
features, or versions which allow only certain fields of endeavor, such
as non-commercial, educational, or non-profit use.
Use restrictions vary by license:
Windows Vista Starter is restricted to running a maximum of three concurrent applications.
Windows XP can be installed on one computer, and limits the number of network file sharing connections to 10. The Home Edition disables features present in Windows XP Professional.
Traditionally, Adobe licenses are limited to one user, but allow the user to install a second copy on a home computer or laptop. This is no longer true with the switching to Creative Cloud.
iWork '09, Apple's productivity suite, is available in a five-user family pack, for use on up to five computers in a household.
While most proprietary software is distributed without the source
code, some vendors distribute the source code or otherwise make it
available to customers. For example, users who have purchased a license
for the Internet forum software vBulletin
can modify the source for their own site but cannot redistribute it.
This is true for many web applications, which must be in source code
form when being run by a web server. The source code is covered by a non-disclosure agreement or a license that allows, for example, study and modification, but not redistribution. The text-based email client Pine and certain implementations of Secure Shell are distributed with proprietary licenses that make the source code available.Some
licenses for proprietary software allow distributing changes to the
source code, but only to others licensed for the product, and some of those modifications are eventually picked up by the vendor.
Some governments fear that proprietary software may include defects or malicious features
which would compromise sensitive information. In 2003 Microsoft
established a Government Security Program (GSP) to allow governments to
view source code and Microsoft security documentation, of which the Chinese government was an early participant.The program is part of Microsoft's broader Shared Source Initiative
which provides source code access for some products. The Reference
Source License (Ms-RSL) and Limited Public License (Ms-LPL) are
proprietary software licenses where the source code is made available.
Governments have also been accused of adding such malware to software themselves. According to documents released by Edward Snowden, the NSA
has used covert partnerships with software companies to make commercial
encryption software exploitable to eavesdropping, or to insert backdoors.
Proprietary software vendors can prohibit the users from sharing the
software with others. Another unique license is required for another
party to use the software.
In the case of proprietary software with source code available,
the vendor may also prohibit customers from distributing their
modifications to the source code.
Shareware
is closed-source software whose owner encourages redistribution at no
cost, but which the user sometimes must pay to use after a trial period.
The fee usually allows use by a single user or computer. In some cases,
software features are restricted during or after the trial period, a
practice sometimes called crippleware.
Proprietary software often stores some of its data in file formats that are incompatible with other software, and may also communicate using protocols which are incompatible. Such formats and protocols may be restricted as trade secrets or subject to patents.
Proprietary APIs
A proprietary application programming interface (API) is a software library interface "specific to one device or, more likely to a number of devices within a particular manufacturer's product range." The motivation for using a proprietary API can be vendor lock-in or because standard APIs do not support the device's functionality.
The European Commission, in its March 24, 2004, decision on Microsoft's business practices, quotes, in paragraph 463, Microsoft general manager for C++ development Aaron Contorer as stating in a February 21, 1997, internal Microsoft memo drafted for Bill Gates:
The Windows API
is so broad, so deep, and so functional that most ISVs would be crazy
not to use it. And it is so deeply embedded in the source code of many
Windows apps that there is a huge switching cost to using a different
operating system instead.
Early versions of the iPhone SDK were covered by a non-disclosure agreement.
The agreement forbade independent developers from discussing the
content of the interfaces. Apple discontinued the NDA in October 2008.
Any dependency on the future versions and upgrades for a proprietary software package can create vendor lock-in, entrenching a monopoly position.
Software limited to certain hardware configurations
Proprietary software may also have licensing terms that limit the usage of that software to a specific set of hardware. Apple has such a licensing model for macOS,
an operating system which is limited to Apple hardware, both by
licensing and various design decisions. This licensing model has been
affirmed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Proprietary software which is no longer marketed, supported or sold by its owner is called abandonware, the digital form of orphaned works.
If the proprietor of a software package should cease to exist, or
decide to cease or limit production or support for a proprietary
software package, recipients and users of the package may have no
recourse if problems are found with the software. Proprietors can fail
to improve and support software because of business problems. Support for older or existing versions of a software package may be ended to force users to upgrade and pay for newer versions(planned obsolescence). Sometimes another vendor or a software's community themselves can provide support for the software, or the users can migrate to either competing systems with longer support life cycles or to FOSS-based systems.
Proprietary software is not synonymous with commercial software, although the two terms are sometimes used synonymously in articles about free software. Proprietary software can be distributed at no cost or for a fee, and free software can be distributed at no cost or for a fee.
The difference is that whether proprietary software can be distributed,
and what the fee would be, is at the proprietor's discretion. With free
software, anyone who has a copy can decide whether, and how much, to
charge for a copy or related services.
Proprietary software that comes for no cost is called freeware.
Proponents of commercial proprietary software argue that
requiring users to pay for software as a product increases funding or
time available for the research and development of software. For example, Microsoft says that per-copy fees maximize the profitability of software development.
Proprietary software generally creates greater commercial activity over free software, especially in regard to market revenues. Proprietary software is often sold with a license that gives the end user right to use the software.
With the introduction of HTML5 and CSS 3, a new generation of browser wars began, this time adding extensive client-side scripting to the World Wide Web (WWW), and the more widespread use of smartphones and other mobile devices
for browsing the web. These changes have ensured that browser battles
continue among enthusiasts, while the average web user is less affected.
Background
Usage share as of Q2 2009 by percent of layout engines/web browsers
Other browsers had started to surface by the end of 1992, many of which were based on the Libwww library. These included MacWWW/Samba for the Mac and Unix browsers including Line Mode Browser, ViolaWWW, Erwise, and MidasWWW. These browsers were HTML viewers that needed third-party helpers to display multimedia content.
Mosaic wars
In 1993, more browsers became available, including Cello, Lynx, tkWWW, and Mosaic. The most influential of these was Mosaic, a multi-platform browser developed at National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA). By October 1994, Mosaic was "well on its way to becoming the world's standard interface", according to Gary Wolfe of Wired.
Several companies licensed Mosaic to create their commercial browsers, such as AirMosaic, Quarterdeck Mosaic, and Spyglass Mosaic. One of the Mosaic developers, Marc Andreessen, co-founded the Mosaic Communications Corporation and created a new web browser named Mosaic Netscape.
There are two ages of the
Internet—before Mosaic, and after. The combination of Tim Berners-Lee's
Web protocols, which provided connectivity, and Marc Andreesen's
browser, which provided a great interface, proved explosive. In
twenty-four months, the Web has gone from being unknown to absolutely
ubiquitous.
— Mark Pesce, ZDNet
To resolve legal issues with NCSA, the company was renamed Netscape Communications Corporation, and the browser Netscape Navigator.
The Netscape browser improved Mosaic's usability and reliability and
was able to display pages as they loaded. By 1995, helped by the fact
that it was free for non-commercial use, the browser dominated the
emerging World Wide Web.
While Netscape faced new competition from OmniWeb, Eolas WebRouser, UdiWWW, and Microsoft's Internet Explorer 1.0, it continued to dominate the market for 1995.
First browser war (1995–2001)
Market share for several browsers between 1995 and 2010.
By mid-1995, the World Wide Web had received a great deal of attention in popular culture and the mass media. Netscape Navigator was the most widely used web browser and Microsoft had licensed Mosaic to create Internet Explorer 1.0, which had released with Microsoft Windows 95 Plus! on August 24, 1995.
Unlike Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer 1.0 was available to
all Windows users free of charge, including commercial companies. Other companies later followed suit and released their browsers free of charge. Netscape Navigator and competitor products like InternetWorks, Quarterdeck Browser, InterAp, and WinTapestry were bundled with other applications to full Internet suites.
New versions of Internet Explorer (IE) and Netscape (branded as Netscape Communicator) were released often over the following few years. New features were routinely added, including Netscape's JavaScript (subsequently replicated by Microsoft as JScript) and proprietary HTML tags such as <blink> (Navigator) and <marquee> (Internet Explorer).
Internet Explorer 3
offered nearly identical services like its competitor, Netscape,
offering scripting support and implemented the market's first commercial
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).
On September 22, 1997, Internet Explorer 4
was released. The release party in San Francisco featured a
ten-foot-tall letter "e" logo. Netscape employees showing up to work the
following morning found the logo on their front lawn, paired with
greeting card signed "Best wishes, the IE team". The Netscape employees promptly knocked it over and set a giant figure of their Mozilla dinosaur mascot atop it, holding a sign reading "Netscape 72, Microsoft 18", referencing the companies' market share.
During these releases, it was common for web designers to display
"best viewed in Netscape" or "best viewed in Internet Explorer" logos.
These images often identified a specific browser and commonly linked to
a source from which the stated browser could be downloaded. These logos
generally recognized the divergence between the standards supported by
the browsers and signified which browser was used for testing the pages.
In response, supporters of the principle that websites should be
compliant with World Wide Web Consortium
standards and hence viewable with any browser started the "Viewable
with Any Browser" campaign, which employed its logo similar to the
partisan ones. Most mainstream websites, however, specified one of
Netscape or Internet Explorer as their preferred browser while making
some attempt to support minimal functionality on the other.
While Netscape had accrued about 75% of the market share within four months of its release,
as a relatively small company deriving the great bulk of its income
from what was essentially a single product (Navigator and its
derivatives), it was financially vulnerable. Microsoft's resources
allowed them to make Internet Explorer available without charge, as the
revenues from Windows were used to fund its development and marketing.
As a result, Internet Explorer was provided free for all Windows and
Macintosh users, unlike Netscape, which was free for home and
educational use but would require a paid license for business use.
Microsoft bundled Internet Explorer with every copy of Windows,
which had over a 95% share of the desktop operating system market in
June 2004,
allowing the company to obtain market share more easily than Netscape
as customers already had Internet Explorer installed as the default
browser. At this time, many new computer purchasers had never
extensively used a web browser before. Consequently, the buyer did not
have anything else to compare with and little motivation to consider
alternatives; any difference in browser features or ergonomics paled in
comparison with the set of abilities they had gained with access to the
Internet and the World Wide Web.
During the United States Microsoft antitrust case in 1998, Intel vice president Steven McGeady
testified that a senior executive at Microsoft told him in 1995 of his
company's intention to "cut off Netscape's air supply", although a
Microsoft attorney rejected McGeady's testimony as not credible. That same year, Netscape was acquired by America Online for 4.2 billion dollars. Internet Explorer became the new dominant browser, attaining a peak of about 96% of the web browser usage share during 2001.
At the start of Netscape Navigator's decline, Netscape open-sourced
its browser code and later entrusted it to the newly formed non-profit Mozilla Foundation
— a primarily community-driven project to create a successor to
Netscape. Development continued for several years with little widespread
adoption until a stripped-down browser-only version of the full suite,
which included new features such as a separate search bar (which had
previously only appeared in the Opera browser), was created. The
browser-only version was initially named Phoenix, but because of trademark issues that name was changed, first to Firebird, then to Firefox. Phoenix was chosen because "Phoenix", implied that it would rise like a phoenix
after Netscape Navigator was killed off by Microsoft. This browser
became the focus of the Mozilla Foundation's development efforts.
Mozilla's Firefox 1 was released on November 9, 2004, and it then continued to gain an increasing share of the browser market until a peak of around 24% in 2010.
In response, in April 2004, the Mozilla Foundation and Opera Software
joined efforts to develop new open-technology standards which add more
capability while remaining backward-compatible with existing
technologies. The result of this collaboration was the WHATWG, a working group devoted to the fast creation of new standard definitions that would be submitted to the W3C for approval.
The growing number of device/browser combinations in use, legally-mandated web accessibility, as well as the expansion of expected web functionality to essentially require DOM and scripting abilities, including AJAX, made web standards
of increasing importance during this era. Instead of advertising their
proprietary extensions, browser developers began to market their
software based on how closely it adhered to standards.
On December 28, 2007, Netscape announced that support for its
Mozilla-derived Netscape Navigator would be discontinued on February 1,
2008, suggesting its users migrate to Mozilla Firefox.
However, on January 28, 2008, Netscape announced that support would be extended to March 1, 2008, and mentioned Flock alongside Firefox as alternatives to its users.
Internet Explorer
In 2003, Microsoft announced that Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 would be the last standalone version of its browser. Future enhancements would be dependent on Windows Vista, which would include new tools such as the WPF and XAML to enable developers to build web applications.
On February 15, 2005, Microsoft announced that Internet Explorer 7 would be available for Windows XP SP2 and later versions of Windows by mid-2005. The announcement introduced the new version of the browser as a major upgrade over Internet Explorer 6 SP1.
Microsoft released Internet Explorer 7 on October 18, 2006. It included tabbed browsing, a search bar, a phishing filter, and improved support for web standards (including full support for PNG) — all features already long familiar to Opera and Firefox users. Microsoft distributed Internet Explorer 7 to genuine Windows users (WGA) as a high-priority update through Windows Update.
Typical market share analysis showed only a slow uptake of Internet
Explorer 7 and Microsoft decided to drop the requirement for WGA and
made Internet Explorer 7 available to all Windows users in October 2007. Throughout the two following years, Microsoft worked on Internet Explorer 8. On December 19, 2007, the company announced that an internal build of that version had passed the Acid2
CSS test in "IE8 standards mode" — the last of the major browsers to do
so. Internet Explorer 8 was released on March 19, 2009. New features
included accelerators, improved privacy protection, a compatibility mode for pages designed for older browsers, and improved support for various web standards. It was the last version of Internet Explorer to be released for Windows XP. Internet Explorer 8 scored 20/100 in the Acid3 test, which was much worse than all major competitors at the time.
In October 2010, StatCounter reported that Internet Explorer had
for the first time dropped below 50% market share to 49.87% in their
figures. Also, StatCounter reported Internet Explorer 8's first drop in usage share in the same month.
Microsoft released Internet Explorer 9 on March 14, 2011. It featured a revamped interface, support for the basic SVG feature set, and partial HTML video support, among other new features. It dropped support for Windows XP, and only ran on Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Phone 7. The company later released Internet Explorer 10 along with Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8
in 2012, and an update compatible with Windows 7 followed in 2013. This
version dropped Vista and Phone 7 support. The release preview of Internet Explorer 11 was released on September 17, 2013. It supported the same desktops as its predecessor.
Starting in 2015 with the release of Windows 10, Microsoft shifted from Internet Explorer to Microsoft Edge (Commonly referred to as Edge). However, the new browser had failed to capture much popularity by 2018. Microsoft Edge switched from its own browser engine, EdgeHTML, to Chromium's Blink engine in 2020 for all platforms except for iOS, where it kept relying on WebKit due to platform restrictions.
Competing desktop and mobile browsers
Share of usage for top 7 used browsers between 2009 and 2021 according to StatCounter
Opera had been a long-time player in the browser wars, known for being lightweight and introducing innovative features such as tabbed browsing and mouse gestures.
However, the software was commercial, which hampered its adoption
compared to its free rivals until 2005, when the browser became freeware. On June 20, 2006, Opera Software released Opera 9 including an integrated source viewer, a BitTorrent client implementation, and widgets. It was the first Windows browser to pass the Acid2 test. Opera Mini, a mobile browser, has a significant mobile market share. Multiple ports, such as Opera 8.5 for the Nintendo DS and Opera 9 for the Wii, were also released.
On October 24, 2006, Mozilla released Mozilla Firefox 2.
It included the ability to reopen recently closed tabs, a session
restore feature to resume work where it had been left after a crash, a
phishing filter, and a spell-checker for text fields. Mozilla released Firefox 3 on June 17, 2008, with performance improvements and other new features. Firefox 3.5
followed on June 30, 2009, with further performance improvements,
native integration of audio and video, and more privacy features.
Apple created forks of the open-source KHTML and KJS layout and JavaScript engines from the KDEKonqueror
browser in 2002. They explained that those provided a basis for easier
development than other technologies by being small (fewer than 140,000 lines of code), cleanly designed, and standards-compliant. The resulting layout engine became known as WebKit and it was incorporated into the Safari browser that first shipped with Mac OS X v10.3.
On June 13, 2003, Microsoft said it was discontinuing Internet Explorer
on the Mac platform, and on June 6, 2007, Apple released a beta version
of Safari for Microsoft Windows. On April 29, 2010, Steve Jobs wrote an open letter regarding his Thoughts on Flash, and the place it would hold on Apple's iOS devices and web browsers. Web developers were tasked with updating their web sites to be mobile-friendly, and while many disagreed with Steve Jobs's assessment on Adobe Flash, history would soon prove his point with the poor performance of Flash on Android devices. HTML4 and CSS2 were the standard in most browsers in 2006. However, new features being added to browsers from HTML5 and CSS3 specifications were quickly making their mark by 2010, especially in the emerging mobile browser
market where new ways of animating and rendering for various screen
sizes were to become the norm. Accessibility would also become a key
player for the mobile web.
Google Chrome's entry
Google released the Chrome browser on September 1, 2008,
using the same WebKit rendering engine as Safari and a faster
JavaScript engine called V8. Shortly after, an open-sourced version for
the Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux platforms was released under the name Chromium. According to Net Applications, Chrome had gained a 3.6% usage share by October 2009. After the release of the beta for Mac OS X and Linux, the market share had increased rapidly.
During December 2009 and January 2010, StatCounter
reported that its statistics indicated that Firefox 3.5 was the most
popular browser when counting individual browser versions, passing
Internet Explorer 7 and 8 by a small margin.
This was the first time a browser surpassed the Internet Explorer since
the fall of Netscape Navigator. However, this feat, which GeekSmack
called the "dethroning of Microsoft and its Internet Explorer 7
browser",
could largely be attributed to the fact that it came at a time when
version 8 was replacing version 7 as the dominant Internet Explorer
version; no more than two months later Internet Explorer 8 had
established itself as the most popular browser again. Other major
statistics, such as Net Applications,
never reported any other browser having a higher usage share than
Internet Explorer if each version of each browser was looked at
individually: for example, Firefox 3.5 was reported as the third most
popular browser version from December 2009 to February 2010, succeeded
by Firefox 3.6 since April 2010, each ahead of Internet Explorer 7 but
behind Internet Explorer 6 and 8.
Google Chrome's dominance and evolving web standards
On January 21, 2010, Mozilla released Mozilla Firefox 3.6,
which introduced a new type of theme display, 'Personas'. This allowed
users to change Firefox's appearance with a single click. Version 3.6
also improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness,
and startup times.
Google released Google Chrome 9 on February 3, 2011. New features introduced included support for WebGL, Chrome Instant, and the Chrome Web Store.
The company created another seven versions of Chrome that year,
finishing with Chrome 16 on December 15, 2011. Google Chrome 17 was
released on February 15, 2012. In April 2012, Google browsers (Chrome
and Android) became the most used browsers on Wikimedia Foundation sites. By May 21, 2012, StatCounter reported Chrome narrowly overtaking Internet Explorer as the most used browser in the world.
However, the market share between Internet Explorer and Chrome meant
that Internet Explorer was slightly ahead of Chrome on weekdays up until
July 4. At the same time, Net Applications reported Internet Explorer firmly in first place, with Google Chrome almost overtaking Firefox as the second. In 2012, responding to Chrome's popularity, Apple discontinued Safari for Windows, making it exclusively available on OS X.
The concept of rapid releases established by Google Chrome
prompted Mozilla to do the same for its Firefox browser. On June 21,
2011, Firefox 5.0 was the first rapid release for this browser, finished
a mere six weeks after the previous edition.
Mozilla created four more whole-number versions throughout the year,
finishing with Firefox 9 on December 20, 2011. For those desiring long-term support, Mozilla made an Extended Support Release (ESR) version of Firefox 10
on January 31, 2012. Contrary to the regular version, a Firefox ESR
received regular security updates plus occasional new features and
performance updates for approximately one year, after which a 12-week
grace period was given before discontinuing that version number.
Those who continued to use the rapid releases with an active Internet
connection were automatically updated to Firefox 11 on March 15, 2012.
By the end of 2011, however, Chrome overtook Firefox to become the
world's most used browser, and the competition between Chrome and
Firefox intensified.
During this era, all major web browsers implemented support for HTML video.
Supported codecs, however, varied from browser to browser. Then
versions of Android, Chrome, and Firefox supported Theora, H.264, and
the VP8 version of WebM. Older versions of Firefox omitted H.264 due to
it being a proprietary codec,
but it was made available beginning in version 17 for Android and
version 20 for Windows. Internet Explorer and Safari supported H.264
exclusively on March 14, 2011 with Internet Explorer 9, and on March 18, 2008 with Safari 3.1.
However, Theora and VP8 codecs could be manually installed on the
desktop versions. Given the popularity of WebKit for mobile browsers,
Opera Software discontinued its Presto engine upon the release of Opera 15 on July 2, 2013.
The Opera 12 series of browsers were the last to use Presto with its
successors using WebKit instead. In 2015, Microsoft discontinued the
production of newer versions of Internet Explorer. By this point, Chrome
overtook all other browsers as the browser with the highest usage
share.[69][70] Chrome had supported Windows XP until the end of 2015.
By 2017 usage shares of Opera, Firefox and Internet Explorer fell
well below 5% each, while Google Chrome had expanded to over 60%
worldwide. On May 25, 2017, Andreas Gal, former Mozilla CTO, publicly announced that Google Chrome won the Second Browser War.
Beyond the browser wars
Due
to Google Chrome's success, in December 2018, Microsoft announced that
they would be building a new version of Edge based on Chromium and powered by Google's rendering engine, Blink, rather than their own rendering engine, EdgeHTML. The new Microsoft Edge browser was released on January 15, 2020.
Though Firefox showed a slight increase in usage share as of February
2019, it continues to struggle with less than 10% usage share worldwide.[76]
By April 2019, worldwide Google Chrome usage share crossed 70% across
personal computers and remained over 60% combining all devices. In June 2022, Microsoft permanently retired Internet Explorer in favor of Microsoft Edge as their sole browser.As of January 2023, Microsoft Edge was the 3rd most used web browser having 4.46% as market share. In 2023, Internet Explorer was permanently disabled by Microsoft on many versions of Windows 10.
As of 2023, Microsoft Edge has been noted to promote itself when visiting or searching for Google Chrome. Ignoring user settings, links from Windows integrated features, such as widgets, open in Edge.
In February 2024, Microsoft silently released the User Choice Protection Driver
for Windows 10 and 11 that prevent software changes to the default
Browser, requiring users make the changes only through Windows settings. In May 2024, a Chrome extension by Microsoft maintains Bing as the default search engine.
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