A collection of (probably heterogeneous) automata whose distribution is transparent to the user so that the system appears as one local machine. This is in contrast to a netwORk, where the user is aware that there are several machines, and their location, stORage replication, load balancing and functionality is not transparent. Distributed systems usually use some kind of client-serverORganisation. Distributed systems are considered by some to be the "next wave" of computing. Distributed Computing Environment is the {Open Software Foundation}' s software architecture fOR distributed systems. . (1994-12-06)