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Bloatware
Software bloat is a process whereby successive versions of a computer program become perceptibly slower, use more memory, Computer data storage, disk space or processing power, or have higher hardware requirements than the previous version, while making only dubious user-perceptible improvements or suffering from feature creep. The term is not applied consistently; it is often used as a pejorative by end users, including to describe undesired user interface changes even if those changes had little or no effect on the hardware requirements. In long-lived software, bloat can occur from the software servicing a large, diverse marketplace with many differing requirements. Most end users will feel they only need some limited subset of the available functions, and will regard the others as unnecessary bloat, even if end users with different requirements require those functions. Actual (measurable) bloat can occur due to de-emphasising algorithmic efficiency in favour of other concerns ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pre-installed Software
Pre-installed software (also known as bundled software) is software already installed and licensed on a computer or smartphone bought from an original equipment manufacturer (OEM)."Pre-installed on a new computer" a article The operating system is usually factory-installed, but because it is a general requirement, this term is used for additional software apart from the bare necessary amount, usually from other sources (or the operating system vendor). Unwanted factory-installed software (also known as crapware or [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Potentially Unwanted Program
A potentially unwanted program (PUP) or potentially unwanted application (PUA) is software that a user may perceive as unwanted or unnecessary. It is used as a subjective tagging criterion by security and parental control products. Such software may use an implementation that can compromise privacy or weaken the computer's security. Companies often bundle a wanted program download with a wrapper application and may offer to install an unwanted application, and in some cases without providing a clear opt-out method. Antivirus companies define the software bundled as potentially unwanted programs which can include software that displays Adware, intrusive advertising (adware), or tracks the user's Internet usage to sell information to advertisers (spyware), injects its own advertising into web pages that a user looks at, or uses premium SMS services to rack up charges for the user. A growing number of open-source software projects have expressed dismay at third-party websites wrapping t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Computer Program
A computer program is a sequence or set of instructions in a programming language for a computer to Execution (computing), execute. It is one component of software, which also includes software documentation, documentation and other intangible components. A ''computer program'' in its human-readable form is called source code. Source code needs another computer program to Execution (computing), execute because computers can only execute their native machine instructions. Therefore, source code may be Translator (computing), translated to machine instructions using a compiler written for the language. (Assembly language programs are translated using an Assembler (computing), assembler.) The resulting file is called an executable. Alternatively, source code may execute within an interpreter (computing), interpreter written for the language. If the executable is requested for execution, then the operating system Loader (computing), loads it into Random-access memory, memory and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wirth's Law
Wirth's law is an adage on computer performance which states that software is getting slower more rapidly than hardware is becoming faster. The adage is named after Niklaus Wirth, a computer scientist who discussed it in his 1995 article "A Plea for Lean Software". History Wirth attributed the saying to Martin Reiser, who in the preface to his book on the Oberon System wrote: "The hope is that the progress in hardware will cure all software ills. However, a critical observer may observe that software manages to outgrow hardware in size and sluggishness." Other observers had noted this for some time before; indeed, the trend was becoming obvious as early as 1987. He states two contributing factors to the acceptance of ever-growing software as: "rapidly growing hardware performance" and "customers' ignorance of features that are essential versus nice-to-have". Enhanced user convenience and functionality supposedly justify the increased size of software, but Wirth argues that pe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Android Debug Bridge
The Android Debug Bridge (commonly abbreviated as adb) is a programming tool used for the debugging of Android-based devices. The daemon on the Android device connects with the server on the host PC over USB or TCP, which connects to the client that is used by the end-user over TCP. Made available as open-source software under the Apache License by Google since 2007, its features include a shell and the possibility to make backups. The adb software is available for Windows, Linux and macOS. It has been misused by botnets and other malware, for which mitigations were developed such as RSA authentication and device whitelisting. Features Features of adb include copying files from the host computer, installing apps, viewing logcat output, getting a Unix shell, and rebooting into Qualcomm EDL mode. For example, Android applications can be saved by the command backup to a file. It also includes support for the Java Debug Wire Protocol. Some graphical interfaces have been m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Android (operating System)
Android is an operating system based on a modified version of the Linux kernel and other open-source software, open-source software, designed primarily for touchscreen-based mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computer, tablets. Android has historically been developed by a consortium of developers known as the Open Handset Alliance, but its most widely used version is primarily developed by Google. First released in 2008, Android is the world's Usage share of operating systems, most widely used operating system; the latest version, released on June 10, 2025, is Android 16. At its core, the operating system is known as the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) and is free and open-source software (FOSS) primarily licensed under the Apache License. However, most devices run the proprietary software, proprietary Android version developed by Google, which ships with additional proprietary closed-source software pre-installed, most notably Google Mobile Services (GMS), which ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Uninstaller
An uninstaller, also called a deinstaller, is a variety of utility software designed to remove other software or parts of it from a computer. It is the opposite of an installer. Uninstallers are useful primarily when software components are installed in multiple directories, or where some software components might be shared between the system being uninstalled and other systems that remain in use. Generic uninstallers became prevalent in the 1990s due to the popularity of shared libraries and the constraints of then-current operating systems, especially Microsoft Windows XP. Declining storage costs and increasing capacity subsequently made reclaiming disk space less urgent, while end-user applications have increasingly relied on simpler installation architectures that consolidate all components to facilitate removal. Components Typical uninstallers contain the following components: * Logger: The Logger is used to log installations (e.g., log which files were added or changed, whi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Mythical Man-Month
''The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering'' is a book on software engineering and project management by Fred Brooks first published in 1975, with subsequent editions in 1982 and 1995. Its central theme is that adding manpower to a software project that is behind schedule delays it even longer. This idea is known as Brooks's law, and is presented along with the second-system effect and advocacy of Software prototyping, prototyping. Brooks's observations are based on his experiences at IBM while managing the development of OS/360. He had added more programmers to a project falling behind schedule, a decision that he would later conclude had, counter-intuitively, delayed the project even further. He also made the mistake of asserting that one project—involved in writing an ALGOL compiler—would require six months, regardless of the number of workers involved (it required longer). The tendency for managers to repeat such errors in project development led Brooks to qui ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fred Brooks
Frederick Phillips Brooks Jr. (April 19, 1931 – November 17, 2022) was an American computer architect, software engineer, and computer scientist, best known for managing development of IBM's System/360 family of mainframe computers and the OS/360 software support package, then later writing candidly about those experiences in his seminal book '' The Mythical Man-Month''. In 1976, Brooks was elected to the National Academy of Engineering for "contributions to computer system design and the development of academic programs in computer sciences". Brooks received many awards, including the National Medal of Technology in 1985 and the Turing Award in 1999. Education Born on April 19, 1931, in Durham, North Carolina, he attended Duke University, graduating in 1953 with a Bachelor of Science degree in physics, and he received a Ph.D. in applied mathematics (computer science) from Harvard University in 1956, supervised by Howard Aiken. Brooks served as the graduate teaching a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second-system Effect
The second-system effect or second-system syndrome is the tendency of small, elegant, and successful systems to be succeeded by over-engineered, bloated systems, due to inflated expectations and overconfidence. The phrase was first used by Fred Brooks in his book ''The Mythical Man-Month'', first published in 1975. It described the jump from a set of simple operating systems on the IBM 700/7000 series to OS/360 on the 360 series, which happened in 1964. See also * Anti-pattern * Feature creep * Inner-platform effect * Osborne effect * Sophomore slump * Unix philosophy The Unix philosophy, originated by Ken Thompson, is a set of cultural norms and philosophical approaches to Minimalism (computing), minimalist, Modularity (programming), modular software development. It is based on the experience of leading devel ... References External links * * * * Software quality {{software-eng-stub de:Vom Mythos des Mann-Monats#Das Problem des zweiten Systems ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Firefox
Mozilla Firefox, or simply Firefox, is a free and open-source web browser developed by the Mozilla Foundation and its subsidiary, the Mozilla Corporation. It uses the Gecko rendering engine to display web pages, which implements current and anticipated web standards. Firefox is available for Windows 10 or later versions of Windows, macOS, and Linux. Its unofficial ports are available for various Unix and Unix-like operating systems, including FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, and other operating systems, such as ReactOS. Firefox is also available for Android and iOS. However, as with all other iOS web browsers, the iOS version uses the WebKit layout engine instead of Gecko due to platform requirements. An optimized version is also available on the Amazon Fire TV as one of the two main browsers available with Amazon's Silk Browser. Firefox is the spiritual successor of Netscape Navigator, as the Mozilla community was created by Netscape in 1998, before its acqui ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
