Hardware is the less glamorous side of computer revolution. Both in terms of function-wise and job-wise, software gets all the credit. Everybody says, rightly, a million things about Windows, Google, Photoshop, and a number of other software programs like Adobe Acrobat, MS Office, and various kinds of programming languages. But comparing to that, the praise hardware parts get is lukewarm.

Comparing to the garlands and bouquet of praise that software receives, what hardware gets is a pat on the back, which is almost an afterthought. So, what is the difference between hardware and software? Hardware is the physical electronic, electrical, magnetic components and peripherals that constitute a computer. Software is the programs needed for effectively running the computer. For effectively running software applications, one needs proper hardware components. Examples of computer hardware include components that make up the central processing unit (CPU) of the computer like motherboard, processor, hard disk, and random access memory (RAM) and peripheral devices like keyboard, mouse, monitor, and modem. Read the rest of this entry »