Introduction

This book is yet another survey of distributed systems.1 However, I believe that this approach is novel. For one thing, I have tried, to the best of my knowledge, to include the majority of the distributed file and operating systems presently in existence or of historical interest. For another, the approach is encyclopedic. Each system is described independently. A description of both the main goal and the pros and cons (advantages and disadvantages) of each system enables the reader to decide whether or not a system is of interest to him or her.