Intro distributed systems, HTTP, DNS and TCP

Distributed systems are often associated with large data centers, cloud platforms, and multiple servers. However, many of their fundamental concepts can also be demonstrated on a single computer.

In this course, Google Chrome is used as a familiar example. Chrome does not operate as one large process. It runs multiple cooperating processes for browser tabs, extensions, rendering, networking, and other responsibilities. These processes communicate while remaining isolated from one another.

Although Chrome is not a distributed system in the traditional multi-computer sense, its multi-process architecture demonstrates several related principles: process isolation, communication, coordination, fault containment, and abstraction. For example, when one tab crashes, the entire browser does not necessarily stop working.

From this starting point, the course explains how similar concepts apply when processes run on different computers. Once communication crosses a physical network, additional challenges appear: network latency, message loss, independent machine failures, unavailable services, and inconsistent timing.

You will also learn how abstractions hide this complexity. Users interact with Chrome as one application, even though many processes operate behind the interface. Similarly, users interact with a distributed application as one system, even when its components run across multiple machines.

This practical comparison makes distributed-system concepts easier to understand before moving into more complex architectures.

Also HTTP, TCP and DNS basics are explained.