[Poll] Is "App" a word you approve for desktop programs?

[Tomoko]

I mostly use the word programs, and sometimes applications. However I never say app, it sounds stupid.

[Leonick]

When speaking or writing in English I usually use one of two words either Program or Application but I do on occasion use the shorter form of Application, App...

When speaking or writing in my native language, Swedish, it's a bit trickier though, I use the Swedish forms of Program for normal computer applications, normal people that aren't sufficiently geeky look like question marks if application is used. I do sometimes use the word App in Swedish for smartphone applications mostly because saying anything else just confuse most people, I do however never use the "Swedish" plural form of App as it sounds so extremely stupid just like any other English word and use it grammatically like it was a Swedish word...

App has been around for quite a while used for desktop application, and not only by Steve, however it's the introduction of iPhone Apps that popularized it and made it a term used by the general public.

When in the Windows environment, a program tends to be the correct word for it, while on OS X they can be called applications, since in both cases this is what the OS calls them.

Actually, Windows do use Application (and Programs), go to any folder where you an executable for a program/application/app and select the Details (hat's the name in Win7) view mode, in the type column you'll see that all files with the .exe extension are called Applications. That said, start menu still says "All Programs" and we have the Program Files folder so...

[someone64]

I'll just add the following note about a folder that some of us have likely seen before:

Windows XP and earlier: Documents and Settings\Username\Application Data\

Windows Vista and later: Users\Username\AppData\

Even in XP, %AppData% translates to the Application Data folder at the command line.

Click Start -> Run, type %AppData%, press Enter, and see what happens.

I wonder what this means :)

[kyosuken]

App/Application/Sotfware/Program ~= the same to me (whatever the platform). So it's yes on all platform (i use them all), IMO it's just pretty words for what is technically the same thing (Ie software made out of machine code), we can argue semantics though but building an "app" for iOS is not so different than building an "application" for Macos (when using Xcode for example), this is the pov of a dev tho so your mileage may vary ;) !

[cooky560 Veteran]

The word App seems fine to me on my mac, but not at all on my Windows desktop, no reason I just feel that way