Distributed systems are subject to many more constraints than software systems that run on a single computer. As a result, the development of software for distributed systems is also very different. However, those who are new to distributed systems make assumptions based on their experience with software development for systems that run on a single computer. Of course, this creates a lot of problems down the road in the systems they build.

To eliminate this confusion and help people build better systems, L Peter Deutsch and others at Sun Microsystems created a collection of these false assumptions. These are the fallacies of distributed computing.