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Chapter 4 Hardware, Software, and Mobile Systems
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PC virtualization is interesting as well as quite useful, as you will learn in Chapter 6. Desktop
virtualization, on the other hand, has the potential to be revolutionary. With desktop virtual-
ization, a server hosts many versions of desktop operating systems. Each of those desktops has a
complete user environment and appears to the user to be just another PC. However, the desktop
can be accessed from any computer to which the user has access. Thus, you could be at an air-
port and go to a terminal computer and access your virtualized desktop. To you, it appears as if
that airport computer is your own personal computer. Using a virtual desktop also means that
you wouldn’t have to worry about losing a corporate laptop or confidential internal data. Mean-
while, many other users could have accessed the computer in the airport, and each thought he
or she had his or her personal computer. IBM offers PC virtualization for as low as $12 a month
per PC.
Desktop virtualization is in its infancy, but it might have major impact during the early years
of your career.

Own Versus License

When you buy a computer program, you are not actually buying that program. Instead, you are
buying a license to use that program. For example, when you buy a Mac OS license, Apple is sell-
ing you the right to use Mac OS. Apple continues to own the Mac OS program. Large organizations
do not buy a license for each computer user. Instead, they negotiate a site license, which is a flat
fee that authorizes the company to install the product (operating system or application) on all of
that company’s computers or on all of the computers at a specific site.
In the case of Linux, no company can sell you a license to use it. It is owned by the open source
community, which states that Linux has no license fee (with certain reasonable restrictions). Large
companies such as IBM and smaller companies such as RedHat can make money by supporting
Linux, but no company makes money selling Linux licenses.

What Types of Applications Exist, and How Do
Organizations Obtain Them?

Some applications are designed to be Application software performs a service or function. Some application programs are general
free but gather data about the people purpose, such as Microsoft Excel or Word. Other application programs provide specific func-
who use them. Read the Ethics tions. QuickBooks, for example, is an application program that provides general ledger and other
Guide on pages 176–177 about
how this is done. accounting functions. We begin by describing categories of application programs and then describe
sources for them.
Horizontal-market application software provides capabilities common across all organi-
zations and industries. Word processors, graphics programs, spreadsheets, and presentation pro-
grams are all horizontal-market application software.
Examples of such software are Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Examples from other
vendors are Adobe’s Acrobat, Photoshop, and PageMaker and Jasc Corporation’s Paint Shop Pro.
These applications are used in a wide variety of businesses across all industries. They are purchased
off the shelf, and little customization of features is necessary (or possible). They are the automobile
equivalent of a sedan. Everybody buys them and then uses them for different purposes.
Vertical-market application software serves the needs of a specific industry. Examples of
such programs are those used by dental offices to schedule appointments and bill patients, those
used by auto mechanics to keep track of customer data and customers’ automobile repairs, and
those used by parts warehouses to track inventory, purchases, and sales. If horizontal-market
applications are sedans, then vertical-market applications would be construction vehicles, like an
excavator. They meet the needs of a specific industry.
Vertical applications usually can be altered or customized. Typically, the company that sold
the application software will provide such services or offer referrals to qualified consultants who
can provide this service.