CSCW and distributed operating system: The control support

The majority of CSCW applications are fundamentally distributed and are dependent on the control mechanisms provided by distributed operating systems. Traditionally, distributed operating systems have taken a systems-oriented approach to control. Their prevalent view is to implement distribution transparency. In CSCW systems, however, control is users-oriented, that is, CSCW systems require the features of distribution are visible to the users. So, the traditional distributed operating system is not suitable to support CSCW applications in control. This paper firstly outlines the control mechanisms in the distributed operating systems and control requirements in CSCW systems, and then presents some solutions to the control improvements of traditional distributed operating systems. Finally, this paper gives a new architecture that makes the distributed operating systems the separation of mechanisms and policies, modularity and extendibility. So, it provides, enough flexibility to meet the control requirements of CSCW.