this post was submitted on 30 May 2024
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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Generally speaking, all runtimes have been traditionally called programs. (On Unix systems runtimes are often synonymous to executables. I guess the term runtime is used more often by devs on the Windows and Java platform, and I think it is specifically an antonym of library, but not sure because I don't develop on those often) Applications traditionally referred to programs that were exposed to the user through a mouse interaction by intention. On macOS an app has the .app extension and is thus a special type of a program.
Although, depending on the context, an "application" might just mean programs because even official tech manuals aren't perfectly rigorous.
On Linux and Windows it is similar. They don't have a specific extension (some .exe binaries on Windows are meant to be run through the commandline.)
Software is the antonym of hardware, as I wrote in another comment.
Honestly I'm surprised that people here don't share this. The terminology was rather cleanly separated before iPhone. Unfortunately, due to smartphones the word "app" entered the mass population and it lost meaning as usual.