A distributed processing system is described that employs “application-based” specialization. In particular, the distributed processing system is constructed as a collection of computing nodes in which each computing node performs a particular processing role within the operation of the overall distributed processing system. Each of the computing nodes includes an operating system, such as the Linux operating system, and includes a plug-in software module to provide a distributed memory operating system that employs the role-based computing techniques. An administration node maintains a database that defines a plurality of application roles. Each role is associated with a software application, and specifies a set of software components necessary for execution of the software application. The administration node deploys the software components to the application nodes in accordance with the application roles associates with each of the application nodes.