"Installed software" is a subset of the features that you, as a user, actively choose to install on this Eclipse instance.
The function list, on the other hand, contains all the functions installed in this instance of Eclipse. It includes all the elements from the "installed software" and contains the dependencies of the elements on the "installed software". These are functions that you did not choose on your own, but the Eclipse P2 update manager decided that to satisfy your installation request.
So, the Eclipse installation process installs functions, some of which are at the user's request, some of them can be installed by the user at the request of the system.
To make this all the more complex, Eclipse functions are often called "plugins" by Eclipse users, although this is not true. Therefore, if you read about something like “installing the PHP plugin”, this really refers to installing the PHP function, which again consists of several plugins (but you do not see them as an Eclipse user, only as an Eclipse developer).
You can double-click one of the functions in this dialog box to see a list of the plugins it contains.
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