In last week's column, I explained the basic function of the CPU, CD-Drives, and modems. If you'll remember from the first article in this series, hardware is anything you can touch. Keyboards, mice, monitors, floppy disk drives they are all hardware.
Software drives the hardware.
Programs are created by people called, you guessed it, programmers. Typically, people like you and me don't create our own programs. We buy them at computer stores. Software is usually stored on CDs, making it easy to transport. Some examples of software include Quicken, Family Tree Maker, Internet Explorer, and even Solitaire.