The Multi-Boot Configuration Handbook

Applications or Utilities?

Chapter 15, "Cross-Platform Utilities," covered the use of cross-platform utilities to help create a consistent working environment across multiple OSs. Most people, though, don't often use the sorts of utilities discussed in Chapter 15. (Computer programmers and heavy users of LaTeX are exceptions to this rule.) Instead, most people make heavy use of applications—tools designed to do day-to-day work. In truth, the distinction between a utility and an application can be a difficult one to draw. Programming tools, Emacs, and LaTeX could all be considered applications as easily as they could be considered utilities, for example, and some of the programs I discuss in this chapter could be considered utilities. As a general ...