No surprise I totally agree that people rarely refer to OS components as merely software  I think thumperward has overstated his case  If you look at WPNCDAB youll notice that one of the examples disambiguates with set theory if his interpretation was correct why didnt the example disambiguate with mathematics  There is no answer  Its a judgment call  I think the example supports picking a term thats actually illuminating of what the thing is not merely the most generic and completely meaningless term possible