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-server organisation. 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)