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Plural of Software used when referring to countable collections of software.

Originally the result of a common language error frequently made by non-native English speakers, it is now increasingly common in the English speaking world as a whole. Thanks to our non-Anglo brothers and sisters in the trade many of us have now assimilated the term "softwares" & in the 21st century simply refer to "softwares" regardless of any other specifics. In the 20th century we would often use terms like "software products" or "software applications" in a commercial setting in order to indicate a collection of several discrete pieces of software, you can use "softwares" in all such cases.

There is an important distinction between the plural "software" (uncountable) and the plural "softwares" (countable). Softwares (countable) refers to finite collections of software products, applications, drivers, modules, scripts, algorithms, and other discrete pieces of software presented in any format and which may or may not fall under one or more more specific classifications as well. You could be a software developer but you may still refer to your collection of assorted projects as "softwares" rather than using more specific terms like "applications", "drivers", "scripts", etc - or the less specific uncountable "software" in which case it would not communicate whether you worked on one thing or many different things.

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