Software

Computer software is a general term used to describe a collection of computer programs, procedures and documentation that perform some task on a computer system.

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Sourced

A solid working knowledge of productivity software and other IT tools has become a basic foundation for success in virtually any career. Beyond that, however, I don't think you can overemphasise the importance of having a good background in maths and science.
- Bill Gates, Bill Gates: The skills you need to succeed. BBC News (14 December 2007).

When done well, software is invisible.
- Bjarne Stroustrup on wired.com

Me, I just don't care about proprietary software. It's not "evil" or "immoral," it just doesn't matter. I think that Open Source can do better, and I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is by working on Open Source, but it's not a crusade – it's just a superior way of working together and generating code.

It's superior because it's a lot more fun and because it makes cooperation much easier (no silly NDA's or artificial barriers to innovation like in a proprietary setting), and I think Open Source is the right thing to do the same way I believe science is better than alchemy. Like science, Open Source allows people to build on a solid base of previous knowledge, without some silly hiding.

But I don't think you need to think that alchemy is "evil." It's just pointless because you can obviously never do as well in a closed environment as you can with open scientific methods.

Linus Torvalds (2007-03-19). The Torvalds Transcript: Why I 'Absolutely Love' GPL Version 2. Retrieved on 2008-12-31.

Software is like sex; it's better when it's free.
- Attributed to Linus Torvalds at 1996 FSF conference, cited in Doug Abbott (2006) Linux for Embedded And Real-time Applications. p.1