New York Times - Computer Makers Set Up Own 'Universities' (September 1961)
Companies like IBM began offering classes to train computer customer support people. The article refers to the trainees as the "software" that comes with the physical "hardware" of the purchased computer.
Chicago Tribune - "I Programmed a Computer!" (October 1967)
The author tries to explain how basic computer programs work, and how it has grown into the complicated systems they were at the time. He refers to software in pretty much the same fashion as we know it today.
Los Angeles Times - Systems Firm Leases Building (July 1962)
Advance Data Systems Corporation leased a building in Los Angeles. That company produced software.
ProQuest - Finite-Turn Pushdown Automata (1966)
The article talks about specific programming languages, and how they are used in software.
Project Muse - A Computerized Lexicon of American Sign Language (1980)
The article talks about retrieving and organizing online data files about American Sign Language, with a brief mention of hardware and software use.
JSTOR - British Medical Journal: Notes From Egypt (1882)
The author talks about the medical conditions in certain parts of Egypt, and it refers to hardware and software when talking about debris spread from houses and buildings.
It seems as though software was seen as a complicated product of complex computer language that only well-trained experts could manipulate and decipher. Now, while most software is written by only the well-trained, the average computer-literate person can use most software due to their refined and simplified systems.
It seems that the use of software was much less mainstream in earlier eras. And while the production, and technical understanding of software is still just as complex today, popular use of software seems far more widespread.
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