In our current stage of evolution, we have figured out how to control light, how to send signals through the ether, and how to connect billions of people onto different internet platforms. In the past hundred years, we have evolved, grown, and invented more products and ideas than in all of the previous years combined. It’s a sort of exponential growth that is now a common theme in our everyday lives. Computers and software have been one of, if not the most important technological advance in of our time, and for that reason, in this article we will discuss the differences between software like Jira Confluence and hardware, and what each one is.
Software vs. Hardware
Software and hardware go hand-in-hand to make our phones, our laptops, and even our own selves work. Think of hardware as the body of the machine. The parts that make it move, and the vessels that keep certain smaller machines in place. Software, then would be the brains of this machine, which tell it how fast to move, what pieces to move, and the inputs and outputs needed for these things to happen.
Hardware is tools, machinery, and other durable equipment. It is also the wiring inside of the machines, the chips and circuits, batteries, bolts, buttons, or any other physical item. For example, the hardware for your laptop would be the screen, the keyboard, the battery, the circuit board, and the casing keeping everything together. Same goes for the cellphone’s hardware which includes the metal or plastic casing, the buttons, the circuit board, and battery inside.
Software is the programs and other operating information used by a computer. By this definition, a computer is simply the device that processes and stores the needed information, algorithms, and programs for a given task. For example, the software that makes your laptop run, depending on if you have Apple or Windows is Windows 10 or iOS. On the cellphone, the software is also iOS or Android depending on what you have. If we were talking about the human body as well, then the software would be the inherent DNA that makes everything in our body run. This software begins to work and develop itself as soon as our mother’s egg is impregnated with a sperm, the same way that the software in a cellphone begins to work as soon as you turn it on.
In conclusion, in this article we discussed the differences between software and hardware and what they do individually. Software can be considered the brains, and hardware the body, of a computer, cellphone or any other piece of technology that is used for a certain task. If we were speaking about our actual selves, then the software that runs our day-to-day lives would be a combination of our inherent DNA and our brain’s processing and memorization ability. The hardware would obviously be our body, and organs that keep us healthy, and cool when our engine overheats.