PC analogies
Download mode - BIOS recovery
Fastboot - BIOS
Recovery - The 'factory restore' partition on your branded PC (eg thinkpad recovery)
Baseband - The Modem attached to your PC that dials and talks to the world (gsm modem)
Firmware:
- The baseband has firmware, think of it like a software update to your PC modem
- The bootloader (BIOS) on the phone has firmware
- The Camera has firmware
System partition:
- This is like the c:\windows on your PC.
So a samsung 'firmware' or update file, includes
- a new recovery partition so that when you factory reset it factory resets to the NEW system version.
- Baseband firmware, to update your modem (or the phone part of the phone)
- System partition to actually update the phone's 'c:\windows'
It can also include, but doesnt always:
- New bootloader (like a BIOS update)
- Camera firmware (like a camera BIOS update)
I hope that's clear enough