1. A distributed system is a collection of independent computers that appears as a single coherent system to users. It is organized as middleware that extends over multiple machines.
2. Transparency in distributed systems hides where resources are located, that they may move, be replicated, or shared concurrently. It also hides failures and whether resources are in memory or disk.
3. Scaling techniques include dividing work like form checking between servers and clients, partitioning namespaces, and distributing data and services across machines.