This introduction paper presents basic foundations of distributed systems and applications and then shows how OSF DCE addresses the requirements imposed by distributed environments. The DCE architecture is illustrated, the basic functionality of the DCE components is explained, and the DCE RPC as the major base for client/server applications is presented in closer detail.
The paper also discusses requirements and new models beyond DCE in order to enable even more advanced distributed applications. In particular, distributed object-oriented DCE extensions are outlined and directions towards distributed multimedia applications are pointed out. Moreover, other requirements and trends such as advanced tool support or distributed transaction facilities are also discussed. Finally, an overview of the papers within these proceedings is given.