grammatical number - Is "software" singular or plural? Can "softwares" be used instead?



I was just reading the wikipedia page on the M3U playlist format when I noticed the second sentence seemed somehow wrong to my ears. Uses just seems wrong here.



It originally was designed for audio files, such as MP3, but various software now uses it to play video file lists.



But then I thought about what the correct alternative would be and I came up with:



It originally was designed for audio files, such as MP3, but various software now use it to play video file lists.




It originally was designed for audio files, such as MP3, but various softwares now use it to play video file lists.



Both these sentences again sound wrong to my ears trained by almost 22 years of listening to English now. The only good alternative I could come up was to avoid this issue altogether is this:



It originally was designed for audio files, such as MP3, but various software media managers now use it to play video file lists.



The issue, I think, boils down to whether softwares is a correct plural form for software.



Answer



Software is called a "non-countable" ("non-count") noun, similar to, say, furniture. As such, it is treated as a singular:


Your furniture is in transit.


The software is available on our website.


If your sentence requires you to indicate, without a doubt, you are talking plural, use the non-count noun as an adjective and attach it to a countable noun:


Your three furniture requisitions have been processed.


We have three software applications that may meet your requirements.


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