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 wp ncdab you'll notice that one of the examples disambiguates with set theory if his interpretation was correct why didn't the example disambiguate with mathematics there is no answer it's a judgment call i think the example supports picking a term that's actually illuminating of what the thing is not merely the most generic and completely meaningless term possible